UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


THE  GIFT  OF 

MAY  TREAT  MORRISON 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

ALEXANDER  F  MORRISON 


LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES 


Memoirs  of  John  Heneage  Jesse 

+> 

FIRST  SERIES 
Complete  in  15  volumes  as  follows) 

MEMOIRS  OF  THE  COURT  OF  ENG- 
LAND, during  the  reigns  of  the  Stuarts, 
including  the  Protectorate  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well   6  vols. 

MEMOIRS  OF  THE  COURT  OF  ENG- 
LAND, during  the  reigns  of  William  and 
Mary,  Queen  Anne,  and  the  First  and 
Second  Georges 4  vols. 

MEMOIRS  OF   THE  PRETENDERS  and 

their  adherents 3  vols. 

HISTORICAL  AND  LITERARY  MEMO- 
RIALS of  the  City  of  London ...  2  vols. 

-9» 

SECOND  SERIES 
Complete  in  15  volumes  as  follows: 
MEMOIRS    OF    KING    RICHARD    THE 

THIRD,  and  some  of  his  contemporaries      1  vol. 
MEMOIRS     OF    KING    GEORGE    THE 

THIRD.    His  life  and  reign       ...    5  vols. 
MEMOIRS  OF  GEORGE  SELWYN  and  his 

contemporaries 4  vols. 

MEMOIRS  OF  CELEBRATED  ETONIANS    2  vols. 
MEMOIRS  OF  THE  CITY  OF  LONDON 

and  its  celebrities 3  vols. 

+ 
The  complete  works  in  30  volumes 

«9» 
L.    C.    PAGE    &    COMPANY 

Publishers 
200  Summer  Street,  Boston,  Mass* 


•  "Escorted  in  great  state/' 

Original  etching  by  Adrian  Marcel. 


Memoirs  of  the  City • 
of  London 


and  Its  Celebrities 


By 

John  Heneage  Jesse 


In  Three  Volumes 
Volume  I. 


Boston  «*  J*  J*  J*  J1 
L.  C.  Page  &  Company 
jfc  jt  jt  MDCCCCII 


£77 
ft 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

TOWER    HILL,   ALLHALLOWS    BARKING,   CRUTCHED  FRIARS, 

EAST   SMITHF1ELD,   WAPPING. 

PAGB 

Illustrious  Personages  Executed  on  Tower  Hill  —  Melan- 
choly Death  of  Otway  —  Anecdote  of  Rochester —  Peter 
the  Great  —  Church  of  Allhallows  Barking  —  Seething 
3  Lane  —  The  Minories — Miserable  Death  of  Lord  Cob- 
ham  —  Goodman's  Fields  Theatre  —  St.  Katherine's 
Church  —  Ratcliffe  Highway  —  Murders  of  the  Marrs 
and  Williamsons  —  Execution  Dock  —  Judge  Jeffreys  — 
Stepney  n 

CHAPTER   II. 
J> 

BILLINGSGATE,   COLE    HARBOUR,    STEEL -YARD,   THE  VINTRY- 

'£ 

Etymology  of  Billingsgate  —  Principal  Ports  of  London  — 
Fishmongers'  Company  —  Sir  William  Walworth  —  Sem- 
inary for  Pickpockets  —  Great  Fire  of  London  —  Hubert's 
Confession  —  Remarkable  Edifices  in  and  near  Thames 

Street 35 

2 

CHAPTER   III. 

M 

QUEENHITHE,    BAYNARD'S    CASTLE,    HOUSES    OF   THE    NOBILITY, 

BLACKFRIARS,    ETC. 

Derivation  of  the  Name  of  Queenhithe  —  Celebrated  Resi- 
dents in  Baynard's  Castle  —  Mansions  near  Paul's  Wharf 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

—  Monastery  of  the  Black  Friars  —  Repudiation  of  Queen 
Catherine  —  Queen  Elizabeth  at  Cobham  House  —  The 
Fatal    Vespers  —  Blackf riar's    Bridge  —  Fleet    Ditch  — 
Strongholds  of  Thieves  —  Palace  of  Bridewell  —  Alsatia 

—  Execution  of  Lord  Sanquhar 60 

CHAPTER   IV. 
LONDON    BRIDGE. 

Antiquity  of  Old  London  Bridge  —  Legend  of  the  Erection 
of  the  First  Bridge  —  Canute's  Expedition  —  The  First 
Stone  Bridge — Its  Appearance  —  Traitors'  Heads  Af- 
fixed Thereon  —  Tenants  and  Accidents  on  It  —  Suicides 
under  It  —  Pageants  across,  and  Fights  on  It  —  Edward 
the  Black  Prince  —  Wat  Tyler  — Lords  Welles  and  Lind- 
say—  Richard  II.  —  Henry  V.  —  Sigismund —  Henry  VI. 

—  Jack  Cade  —  Bastard  of   Falcon  bridge  —  Wolsey  — 
Osbome  —  Wyatt  —  Charles  II. —  Decapitated  Persons.  102 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   FIRE   OF    LONDON. 

Where  the  Fire  Originated  —  Charles  II.'s  Noble  Conduct 

—  Pepys's  Account  of  the  Fire  —  Evelyn's  "  Diary  "  — 
Farryner's  Account  of  the  Origin  of  the  Fire  —  Attrib- 
uted   to    the    Roman    Catholics  —  The    Monument  — 
Original   Inscription  —  Damage   Caused  by  the  Fire  — 
Description  of  the  Monument 132 

CHAPTER   VI. 

FISH  STREET  HILL,  EASTCHEAP,  GRACECHURCH  STREET, 
ST.  OLAVE'S,  HART  STREET. 

King's  Head  Tavern  —  St.  Magnus  the  Martyr  —  Pudding 
Lane  —  Boar's  Head  Tavern  —  Sir  John  Falstaff  —  Lom- 
bard Merchants  —  Earl  of  Suffolk  —  Fenchurch  Street 

—  Queen   Elizabeth  —  St.   Olave's   Church  —  Sir   John 


CONTENTS.  vii 

PACK 

Mennis  —  Monument  to  Pepys's  Wife  —  Doctor  Mills  — 
Whittington's  Residence  —  Lady  Fanshawe     .        .        .156 

CHAPTER   VII. 

ALDGATE,    ST.    BOTOLPH'S    CHURCH,    LEADEN  HALL    STREET,    ST. 
CATHERINE   CREE,   ETC. 

Derivation  of  the  name  Aldgate  —  Stow  the  Antiquary  — 
His  Labours  111  Requited  —  Cruel  Execution  of  the  Bailiff 
of  Romford  —  His  Speech  —  Church  of  St.  Botolph  — 
Monuments  in  the  Church  —  Defoe's  Account  of  the 
Burial-pits  in  the  Churchyard  during  the  Plague  — 
Whitechapel  —  Duke's  Place  —  Priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity 

—  Leadenhall  Street  —  Church  of  St.  Catherine  Cree  — 
Persons  Buried  There  —  Consecration  of  the  Church  by 
Archbishop  Laud  —  Church  of  St.  Andrew  Undershaft 

—  Monuments  —  St.  Mary  Axe  —  Lime  Street          .        .  178 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

CORNHILL,   ST.   MICHAEL'S  CHURCH,   ROYAL  EXCHANGE,   ETC. 

Cornhill  Frequented  by  Old  Clothes  Sellers  — "  Pope's 
Head"  —  First  London  Coffee-house  —  Tea-drinking — 
St.  Michael's  Church  — The  Standard  in  Cornhill  — The 
Royal  Exchange  — The  Pawn  —  Royal  Exchange  Bazaar 

—  Change  Alley  —  Threadneedle  Street  —  Gordon  Riots 

—  Merchant    Taylors'    Company — Southsea    House  — 
Drapers'  Company  —  Plague  in  Lothbury       .        .        .  202 

CHAPTER   IX. 

OLD  JEWRY,  ST.  LAWRENCE  CHURCH,  MANSION  HOUSE,  LONDON 
STONE,   ETC. 

Old  Jewry,  the  Original  Burial-place  of  the  Jews  —  Expul- 
sion of  the  Jews  —  Doctor  Lambe  and  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  —  St.  Olave's  Church  —  St.  Lawrence 
Jewry  —  St.  Thomas  of  Aeon  —  Gilbert  a  Becket  — 
Mercers'  Company  —  The  Poultry  —  Mansion  House  — 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

Stocks  Market  —  Sir  John  Cutler  —  Bucklersbury  —  In- 
dian Houses  —  St.  Stephen's  Walbrook  —  London  Stone 
—  Prior  of  Tortington's  "  Inne  " 227 

CHAPTER  X. 
BISHOPSGATB   STREET,   CROSBY   HALL. 

Derivation  of  the  Word  Bishopsgate  —  Crosby  Place  — 
Its  Present  Condition  —  When  Built  —  Character  of  its 
Founder  —  Its  Tenants:  Richard  the  Third,  Read,  Em- 
peror Maximilian,  Rest,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Bond,  Spencer, 
First  Earl  of  Northampton,  Countess  of  Pembroke,  Due 
de  Sully,  Second  Earl  of  Northampton  —  Sir  Stephen 
Langham  —  Gresham  House  —  Sir  Paul  Pindar  .  .  252 

CHAPTER   XL 
CHURCH  OF  ST.    HELEN'S  THE  GREAT. 

Antiquity  of  St.  Helen's  Church  —  Priory  of  Benedictine 
Nuns  Founded  There  —  Exterior  and  Interior  of  the 
Church  —  Its  Striking  Monuments :  Sir  Julius  Caesar's, 
Martin  Bond's,  Sir  John  Crosby's,  Sir  William  Picker- 
ing's, Sir  Thomas  Gresham's,  Francis  Bancroft's  — 
Houndsditch  —  Hand  Alley  —  Devonshire  Court  —  St. 
Botolph's  Church  —  Persian's  Tomb  —  Curtain  Theatre 

—  Shoreditch  —  Hoxton  —  Spitalfields  —  Bethnal  Green 

—  Old  Artillery  Ground     . 276 

CHAPTER   XII. 

LONDON   WALL,   AUSTIN    FRIARS,    ETC. 

Original  Extent  of  London  Wall  —  Its  Gates  —  The  City 
Ditch  —  Broad  Street  —  Austin  Friars  —  Monuments 
There  —  Winchester  House  —  Finsbury  and  Moorfields 

—  Bedlam  —  Moorgate  Street  —  New  Artillery  Ground  — 
Milton  —  Bunhill    Row  —  Bunhill    Fields'   Burial-ground 

—  Celebrated    Persons    Buried   There  —  Grub   Street  — 
Hoole  and  Doctor  Johnson       ......  299 


CONTENTS.  ix 

PACR 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
ST.  GILES'S  CRIPPLEGATE,  BARBERS'   HALL,  FORTUNE    THEATRE. 

Antiquity  of  St.  Giles's  Cripplegate  Church  —  Celebrated 
Men  Buried  There:  Speed,  John  Fox,  Robert  Glover, 
Sir  Martin  Frobisher,  William  Bulleyn,  Milton,  Margaret 
Lucy,  Thomas  Busby  —  Monkwell  Street  —  Barber-Sur- 
geons' Hall  —  Silver  Street  —  Sion  College  —  Wood 
Street  —  St.  Mary,  Aldermanbury  —  Judge  Jeffreys  — 
Thomas  Farnaby — Jewin  Street  —  Aldersgate  Street  — 
Shaftesbury,  Petre,  and  Lonsdale  Houses  —  Milton 

—  Barbican — Fortune  Theatre 318 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

SMITHFIELD. 

Smithfield  Cattle-market  in  Former  Times  the  Place  for 
Tournaments,  Trials  by  Battle,  Executions,  and  Autos- 
da-Ft  —  Tournaments  before  Edward  the  Third  and 
Richard  the  Second  —  Trials  by  Duel  between  Catour 
and  Davy,  and  the  Bastard  of  Burgundy  and  Lord  Scales 

—  Remarkable  Executions  —  Persons  Who  Suffered  Mar- 
tyrdom in  the  Flames  at  Smithfield  —  Interview  There 
between   Wat    Tyler   and    Richard    the    Second  —  Sir 
William  Walworth 347 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

"  ESCORTED  IN  GREAT  STATE  "  (see  page  123} 

Frontispiece 

BRIDEWELL 88 

LONDON  BRIDGE 102 

SIR  CHRISTOPHER  WREN 154 

ANCIENT  VIEW  OF  CORNHILL 202 

SULLY 265 


London,  Vol.  I. 


LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES. 


CHAPTER:'!' 

TOWER    HILL,     ALLHALLOWS     BARKING,     CRUTCHED 
FRIARS,    EAST    SMITHFIELD,    WAPPING. 

Illustrious  Personages  Executed  on  Tower  Hill  —  Melancholy 
Death  of  Otway  —  Anecdote  of  Rochester  —  Peter  the  Great 
—  Church  of  Allhallows  Barking  —  Seething  Lane  —  The 
Minories  —  Miserable  Death  of  Lord  Cobham  —  Goodman's 
Fields  Theatre  —  St.  Katherine's  Church  —  Ratcliffe  High- 
way —  Murders  of  the  Marrs  and  Williamsons  —  Execution 
Dock  —  Judge  Jeffreys  —  Stepney. 

WHO  is  there  whose  heart  is  so  dead  to  every 
generous  impulse  as  to  have  stood  without  feelings 
of  deep  emotion  upon  that  famous  hill,  where  so 
many  of  the  gallant  and  the  powerful  have  perished 
by  a  bloody  and  untimely  death  ?  Here  fell  the 
wise  and  witty  Sir  Thomas  More ;  the  great  Pro- 
tector Duke  of  Somerset ;  and  the  young  and  ac- 
complished Earl  of  Surrey !  Here  died  the  lofty 
Strafford  and  the  venerable  Laud ;  the  unbending 
patriot,  Algernon  Sidney,  and  the  gay  and  graceful 


12  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Duke  of  Monmouth  !  Who  is  there  who  has  not 
sought  to  fix  in  his  mind's  eye  the  identical  spot 
where  they  fell,  —  the  exact  site  of  the  fatal  stage 
and  of  its  terrible  paraphernalia  ?  Who  is  there 
who  has  not  endeavoured  to  identify  the  old  edi- 
fice '  from  which  the  gallant  Derwent water  and 
the  virtuous  Kenmure  were  led  through  avenues 
•(j£.soldief$'  fo-.ihfe.folock  ?  or  who  has  not  sought 
.for- the. -bouse  '{adjeining  the  scaffold  "  where  the 
•gferitle  'Kilmameck'* breathed  his  last  sigh,  and 
where  the  intrepid  Balmerino  grasped  affection- 
ately, and  for  the  last  time,  the  hand  of  the  friend 
who  had  so  often  dashed  with  him  through  the 
ranks  of  the  foe  on  the  field  of  battle? 

Among  a  host  of  scarcely  less  illustrious  per- 
sonages who  perished  by  the  hand  of  the  execu- 
tioner on  Tower  Hill,  may  be  mentioned  Edward 
Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Warwick,  son  of  the  false  and 
perjured  Clarence  ;  the  handsome  and  accomplished 
adventurer,  Perkin  Warbeck ;  the  gallant  Sir  Wil- 
liam Stanley,  who  placed  the  crown  on  the  head  of 
Henry  the  Seventh  on  the  field  of  Bosworth  ;  the 
powerful  Edward  Stafford,  Duke  of  Buckingham  ; 
Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Essex,  the  successor 
of  Wolsey  in  the  favour  of  Henry  the  Eighth ; 
George,  Lord  Rochford,  brother  of  Anne  Boleyn ; 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Salisbury,  mother  of  Car- 
dinal Pole ;  the  ambitious  Lord  Seymour  of 
Sudeley,  uncle  to  Edward  the  Sixth,  and  brother 

1  The  old  Transport  Office. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  13 

to  the  Protector  Somerset  ;  the  turbulent  John 
Dudley,  Duke  of  Northumberland  ;  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt ;  Lord  Guildford  Dudley,  the  husband  of 
Lady  Jane  Grey ;  her  father,  I-tenry  Grey,  Duke 
of  Suffolk ;  Thomas  Howard,  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
the  ambitious  lover  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots ;  the 
crafty  visionary,  Sir  Henry  Vane;  William  How- 
ard, Earl  of  Stafford,  condemned  on  the  false  evi- 
dence of  Titus  Gates ;  Sir  John  Fenwick ;  the 
gallant  Charles  Radcliffe,  brother,  of  the  Earl  of 
Derwentwater ;  and  lastly,  the  infamous  Simon 
Fraser,  Lord  Lovat. 

But  it  is  not  entirely  from  the  illustrious  blood 
with  which  it  has  been  drenched  that  Tower  Hill 
derives  its  interest.  Here,  at  a  cutler's  stall,  the 
assassin  Felton  purchased  the  knife  which  cut 
short  the  life  of  the  mighty  Buckingham ;  and 
here,  at  the  sign  of  "  the  Bull,"  died,  in  extreme 
poverty,  the  unfortunate  dramatic  poet,  Thomas 
Otway !  Dennis  tells  us  that  his  death  took  place 
at  an  "  alehouse  ; "  but,  according  to  Oldys,  in  his 
MS.  notes  to  Langbaine,  it  was  in  a  sponging- 
house.  "  He  died,"  says  Doctor  Johnson,  "  in  a 
manner  which  I  am  unwilling  to  mention.  Having 
been  compelled  by  his  necessities  to  contract  debts, 
and  hunted,  as  is  supposed,  by  the  terriers  of  the 
law,  he  retired  to  a  public-house  on  Tower  Hill, 
where  he  is  said  to  have  died  of  want ;  or,  as  it  is 
related  by  one  of  his  biographers,  by  swallowing, 
after  a  long  fast,  a  piece  of  bread  which  charity 


14  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

had  supplied.  He  went  out,  as  is  reported,  almost 
naked,  in  the  rage  of  hunger,  and  finding  a  gentle- 
man in  a  neighbouring  coffee-house,  asked  him  for 
a  shilling.  The  gentleman  gave  him  a  guinea; 
and  Otway,  going  away,  bought  a  roll,  and  was 
choked  with  the  first  mouthful."  Such,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-three,  is  said  to  have  been  the  fate 
of  "poor  Tom  Otway,"  to  whose  imaginative 
genius  we  owe  "  The  Orphan "  and  "  Venice 
Preserved." 

Tower  Hill  is  associated  with  a  name  scarcely 
less  celebrated  than  that  of  Otway,  that  of  a  man 
of  widely  different  character  and  fortunes.  We 
allude  to  William  Penn,  the  founder  and  legislator 
of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  born  here  on  the  I4th  of 
October,  1644. 

During  a  part  of  the  time  her  husband  was  a 
prisoner  in  the  Tower,  we  find  Lady  Raleigh  fixing 
her  residence  on  Tower  Hill. 

To  the  northwest  of  Tower  Hill  is  Great 
Tower  Street,  where  the  witty  and  profligate  Earl 
of  Rochester  practised  on  a  raised  stage  his  mem- 
orable pranks  as  an  Italian  physician  and  fortune- 
teller. His  lodgings  were  at  a  goldsmith's,  next 
door  to  the  "  Black  Swan  ; "  and  here  he  was  to  be 
seen  and  consulted  between  the  hours  of  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  and  eight  at  night.  Bur- 
net  informs  us  that  his  disguise  was  admirable,  and 
that  he  practised  physic  "not  without  success," 
for  some  weeks.  His  fame,  which  at  first  was 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  15 

merely  local,  at  last  reached  the  ears  of  the  court. 
Rochester  was  of  course  equally  well  acquainted 
with  the  scandal  of  the  day  as  with  the  persons 
and  characters  of  those  who  figured  in  it ;  and 
accordingly,  having  recognised  the  female  attend- 
ants of  some  of  the  ladies  of  the  court,  he  sent 
them  back  to  Whitehall  sufficiently  amazed  at  his 
supernatural  powers  to  excite  the  curiosity  of  their 
mistresses.  In  a  masquerading,  and  still  more  in  a 
superstitious  age,  it  was  not  unnatural  that  many 
a  fair  lady,  under  the  convenient  guise  of  the  then 
fashionable  mask,  should  have  sought  to  dive  into 
futurity  by  means  of  the  Italian  fortune-teller,  or 
that  she  should  have  been  startled  by  the  disagree- 
able truths  which  he  communicated  to  her.1 

On  the  south  side  of  Great  Tower  Street  may 
be  seen  the  Czar's  Head  public-house,  so  named 
from  a  tavern  which  was  the  frequent  resort  of 
Peter  the  Great ;  who,  after  his  favourite  boating 
expeditions  on  the  river,  used  to  pass  his  even- 
ings here,  imbibing  almost  incredible  draughts  of 
brandy  and  beer.2  His  prowess  in  drinking  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  matter  of  astonishment  to 
all  who  approached  him  ;  indeed,  we  are  assured 
that  at  their  social  meetings  the  usual  drink  of  the 

1  Rochester's  address  to  the  public,  in  which  he  signs  himself 
"  Alexander  Bendo,"  and  professes  to  cure  all  disorders,  to  re- 
store beauty,  and  a  hundred  other  absurdities,  will  be  found  in 
the  different  editions  of  his  works. 

2  The  house  has  been  rebuilt  since  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great. 


1 6  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Czar  and  of  his  cicerone,  the  Marquis  of  Carmar- 
then, was  "hot  pepper  and  brandy."  On  one 
particular  day  he  is  said  to  have  drunk  no  less 
than  a  pint  of  brandy,  a  bottle  of  sherry,  and  eight 
bottles  of  sack,  and  yet  he  was  able  to  attend  the 
theatre  in  the  evening. 

In  Little  Tower  Street,  Thomson  was  residing 
in  1726;  and  here  he  composed  his  "Summer," 
published  in  1728. 

West  of  Tower  Hill  is  the  ancient  and  interest- 
ing church  of  Allhallows  Barking.  Hither  were 
conveyed  the  headless  remains  of  more  than  one 
illustrious  person  after  their  decapitation  on  the 
neighbouring  hill.  Here  rested  the  body  of  the 
Earl  of  Surrey  till  its  removal,  in  1614,  to  Fram- 
lingham,  in  Suffolk ;  and  here  also  rested  the  re- 
mains of  the  pious  and  ill-fated  John  Fisher,  Bishop 
of  Rochester,  till  they  were  transferred  to  the 
Tower  Chapel,  to  mingle  with  the  dust  of  his  illus- 
trious friend,  Sir  Thomas  More.  In  the  chancel 
was  interred  Archbishop  Laud,  who  was  beheaded 
in  1645,  arjd  whose  remains  continued  here  till  the 
month  of  July,  1663,  when  they  were  removed  to 
St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  of  which  society  he 
had  been  president.  In  the  same  grave  which  had 
been  tenanted  by  Laud,  was  afterward  buried  the 
learned  and  pious  Dr.  John  Kettlewell,  who,  as 
his  monument  at  the  east  end  of  the  church  in- 
forms us,  "  Animam  Deo  reddidit ;  Ap.  12,  1695. 
ALtat.  42. 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  17 

The  church  of  Allhallows  Barking  derives  its 
name  from  "all  Hallows,"  or  all  Saints,  and  from 
the  manor  of  Barking,  in  Essex,  the  vicarage  hav- 
ing originally  belonged  to  the  abbess  and  convent 
of  that  place.  The  date  of  its  foundation  is  not 
known.  We  learn,  however,  from  Stow,  that  a 
chapel  was  originally  founded  on  the  spot  by  Rich- 
ard Cceur  de  Lion ;  and  it  has  been  said  that  the 
heart  of  that  chivalrous  monarch  was  long  pre- 
served within  its  walls,  though,  according  to  other 
accounts,  he  himself  bequeathed  his  heart  to  the 
citizens  of  Rouen,  in  gratitude  for  their  loyalty 
and  attachment.  But,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  motive,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  our  early 
sovereigns  took  an  especial  interest  in  the  pros- 
perity of  this  religious  foundation,  and  that  it  was 
munificently  endowed  by  successive  princes.  At 
this  spot  the  warlike  Edward  the  First  frequently 
came  to  offer  up  his  devotions.  When  he  was 
Prince  of  Wales,  it  is  said  that  he  had  been  as- 
sured by  a  vision  that  he  should  be  victorious  over 
all  nations,  and  more  especially  over  Scotland  and 
Wales,  on  condition  that  he  should  erect  an  image 
to  the  Holy  Virgin,  in  King  Richard's  Chapel,  and 
should  pay  his  adorations  to  her  there  five  times 
in  each  year.  Edward  religiously  followed  the  in- 
junctions of  the  vision,  and  when,  subsequently, 
one  military  success  followed  another,  "  our  Lady 
of  Barking  "  grew  into  such  repute,  that  pilgrims 
flowed  to  her  shrine  with  rich  presents  from  all 


l8  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

parts  of  England.  King  Edward  the  Fourth  sub- 
sequently endowed  the  chapel  with  a  brotherhood, 
consisting  of  a  master  and  brethren,  under  the  name 
of  the  King's  Chapel,  or  Capella  Beatce  Maria  de 
Barking ;  and  lastly,  King  Richard  the  Third  re- 
built the  chapel  and  founded  there  a  college,  con- 
sisting of  a  dean  and  six  canons.  This  college  was 
suppressed  in  1548.  Stow  informs  us  that  in  the 
successive  reigns  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  Queen 
Mary,  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  ground  on  which 
it  stood  was  used  as  a  garden.  There  is  no  doubt, 
however,  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  ancient 
structure  was  allowed  to  remain,  and  that  it  is  in- 
corporated with  the  present  church.  The  general 
aspect,  indeed,  is  of  the  Tudor  age,  but  the  pillars 
on  each  side  of  the  nave,  toward  the  western  ex- 
tremity, are  evidently  Norman,  and  these,  as  well 
as  its  ancient  monuments  and  funeral  brasses, 
—  the  latter  among  the  best  in  the  metropolis,  — 
prove  that  its  construction  is  of  no  recent  period. 
We  learn  from  Pepys  that  the  church  had  a  very 
narrow  escape  during  the  great  fire,  in  1666,  the 
dial  and  porch  having  been  both  burnt. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  church  is  Seething  Lane, 
anciently  called  Sidon  Lane.  Here  formerly  stood 
a  spacious  mansion,  the  residence  of  Sir  John  Allen, 
who  was  a  Privy  Councillor  and  Lord  Mayor  of 
London  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth.  It  was 
afterward  inhabited  by  the  celebrated  courtier  and 
statesman,  Sir  Francis  Walsingham,  who  died  here 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  19 

on  the  6th  of  April,  1590,  and  from  him  descended 
to  his  grandson,  Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex, 
the  Parliamentary  general  during  the  civil  troubles. 
Pepys  was  for  many  years  a  resident  in  Seething 
Lane. 

Seething  Lane  leads  us  into  Crutched  Friars,  so 
called  from  the  Crossed  Friars,  or  Fratres  Sancta 
Cruets,  who  had  a  house  here,  founded  by  two 
citizens  of  London,  Ralph  Hosier  and  William 
Sabernes,  about  the  year  1298.  The  brothers  of 
this  Order  originally  carried  an  iron  cross  in  their 
hands,  and  wore  a  garment  distinguished  by  a  red 
cross ;  but  the  former  was  afterward  exchanged 
for  one  of  silver,  and  the  colour  of  the  cross  on 
the  garment  altered  to  blue.  At  the  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries,  the  house  of  the  Crossed  Friars 
was  granted  by  Henry  the  Eighth  to  the  graceful 
poet,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt ;  and  at  a  subsequent 
period  came  into  the  possession  of  John  de  Lum- 
ley,  fifth  Baron  Lumley,  a  distinguished  warrior 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  1557,  we  find  the 
Friars  Hall  converted  into  an  establishment  for 
manufacturing  drinking-glasses,  the  first  of  the 
kind  known  in  England.  In  Crutched  Friars  re- 
sided, at  the  close  of  his  life,  William  Turner,  the 
eminent  naturalist  of  the  sixteenth  century.  He 
probably  died  here,  for  his  remains  were  interred 
in  the  chancel  of  the  neighbouring  church  of  St. 
Olave's,  Hart  Street. 

The  old  navy  office,  of  which  we  find  so  many 


20  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

interesting  notices  in  Pepys's  Diary,  stood  on  the 
site  of  the  old  chapel  and  college  attached  to 
Allhallows  Church,  Barking.  There  was  one  en- 
trance into  Seething  Lane  ;  but  the  "  chief  gate  for 
entrance  "  was  in  Crutched  Friars.  Here  it  was, 
as  we  learn  from  Anthony  Wood,  that  the  well- 
known  admiral  and  poet,  Sir  John  Mennes,  breathed 
his  last. 

When  the  Kings  of  England  held  their  court  in 
the  Tower,  it  was  natural  that  the  presence  of 
royalty  should  attract  many  of  the  nobility  to  re- 
side in  the  then  fashionable  vicinity  of  the  royal 
fortress.  Accordingly,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Sixth,  we  find  Henry,  Earl  of  Arundel,  residing  in 
Mark  Lane,  in  a  magnificent  house  formerly  be- 
longing to  Sir  William  Sharrington ;  while,  close 
to  the  Crutched  Friars,  stood  the  mansion  of  the 
Percys,  Earls  of  Northumberland.  Here  resided 
Henry,  the  second  earl,  who  fought  in  the  battle 
of  Agincourt  and  at  Chevy  Chase,  and  who  after- 
ward fell  at  the  battle  of  St.  Albans  ;  and  here 
also  lived  his  son  Henry,  the  third  earl,  who  was 
killed  leading  the  vanguard  at  the  battle  of 
Towton. 

"...  Northumberland  ;  a  braver  man 
Ne'er  spurred  his  courser  to  the  trumpet's  sound." 

—  Shakespeare. 

Stow  informs  us  that,  on  being  deserted  by  the 
Percys,  the  garden  was  converted  into  bowling- 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  21 

alleys,  and  other  parts  into  dicing-houses.  In 
Mark,  or  Mart  Lane,  as  it  was  anciently  called, 
Milton's  friend,  Cyriac  Skinner,  carried  on  the 
occupation  of  a  merchant. 

"  Cyriac,  whose  grandsire  on  the  royal  bench 
Of  British  Themis  with  no  mean  applause 
Pronounced,  and  in  his  volumes  taught  our  laws." 

To  the  east  of  Mark  Lane  and  Crutched  Friars 
is  the  street  called  the  Minories,  which  takes  its 
name  from  the  Minoresses,  or  nuns  of  the  Order 
of  St.  Clair,  for  whose  maintenance  Edmond,  Earl 
of  Lancaster,  founded  a  convent  here  in  1293.  In 
1539  it  was  surrendered  to  Henry  the  Eighth  by 
Dame  Elizabeth  Savage,  its  last  abbess.  Some 
time  after  its  suppression  it  became  the  residence 
of  the  Bishops  of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  was  after- 
ward granted  by  Edward  the  Sixth  to  Henry  Grey, 
Duke  of  Suffolk,  who  was  beheaded  on  Tower 
Hill,  in  1554,  for  his  attempt  to  raise  his  daughter, 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  to  the  throne.  On  the  attainder 
of  the  duke  it  reverted  to  the  Crown,  and  shortly 
after  the  Restoration  was  granted  by  Charles  the 
Second  to  Colonel  William  Legge,  so  celebrated 
for  his  loyalty  and  gallantry  during  the  civil  wars. 
At  the  battle  of  Worcester  he  was  wounded  and 
taken  prisoner,  and  would  have  been  executed  had 
not  his  wife  enabled  him  to  effect  his  escape  from 
Coventry  gaol  in  her  own  clothes.  He  died  here 
in  1672,  and  was  followed  to  the  grave  in  the 


22  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

adjoining  Trinity  Church,  Minories,  by  Prince 
Rupert,  the  Dukes  of  Buckingham,  Richmond, 
Monmouth,  Newcastle,  and  Ormond,  and  many 
others  of  the  principal  nobility.  Since  that  time 
his  descendants,  the  Earls  of  Dartmouth,  have  con- 
tinued to  make  Trinity  Church  their  family  burial- 
place.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  George, 
first  Baron  Dartmouth,  whose  name  figures  so 
conspicuously  in  the  annals  of  the  Revolution 
of  1688,  and  who  died  of  apoplexy  in  the  Tower  in 
1691.  Before  the  high  altar  of  the  old  church 
in  the  Minories  was  buried  the  priest  who  mar- 
ried Edward  the  Fourth  to  Elizabeth  Woodville. 
The  present  church  was  rebuilt  in  1706. 

Stow  informs  us  that  on  a  portion  of  the  prop- 
erty, formerly  belonging  to  the  nuns,  arose  "  divers 
fair  and  large  storehouses  for  armour  and  habili- 
ments of  war,  with  divers  workhouses  serving  to 
the  same  purpose."  In  the  time  of  Dryden  the 
Minories  was  still  colonised  by  gunsmiths ;  and 
Congreve  writes : 

"  The  Mulcibers,  who  in  the  Minories  sweat, 
And  massive  bars  on  stubborn  anvils  beat, 
Deformed  themselves,  yet  forge  those  stays  of  steel 
Which  arm  Aurelia  with  a  shape  to  kill." 

It  was  in  a  wretched  hovel  in  the  Minories  that 
Henry  Brooke,  Lord  Cobham,  —  once  the  possessor 
of  a  princely  fortune,  and  the  last  descendant  of 
an  illustrious  race,  —  closed  his  life  in  poverty  and 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  23 

filth.  Having  been  sentenced  to  death  with  Lord 
Grey  of  Wilton,  for  their  participation  in  the  al- 
leged conspiracy  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  they  were 
led  to  the  scaffold  without  any  apparent  prospect 
of  a  reprieve.  Almost  at  the  moment,  however, 
when  they  were  about  to  lay  their  heads  upon  the 
block,  it  was  intimated  to  them  that  their  lives  had 
been  spared ;  when  such  was  the  effect  produced 
on  their  nervous  system,  that,  according  to  Sir 
Dudley  Carleton,  "they  looked  strange  on  one 
another,  like  men  beheaded  and  met  again  in 
the  other  world."  Lord  Grey  died  in  prison  ;  but 
after  a  time  Lord  Cobham  obtained  his  release,  to 
perish  in  the  miserable  manner  we  have  mentioned. 
His  wife,  Lady  Cobham,  though  living  herself  in 
affluence,  is  said  to  have  refused  him  the  means  of 
procuring  a  crust  of  bread  and  a  clean  shirt.  Os- 
borne  informs  us,  on  the  authority  of  William,  Earl 
of  Pembroke,  that  Lord  Cobham  died,  "rather  of 
hunger  than  any  more  natural  disease,"  in  a  room 
ascended  by  a  ladder,  at  the  house  of  a  poor 
woman  in  the  Minories,  who  had  formerly  been 
his  laundress. 

Passing  to  the  eastward  from  the  Minories 
through  Haydon  Square,  we  find  ourselves  in 
Goodman's  Fields,  —  the  site  of  a  Roman  burial- 
place,  —  which  derives  its  name  from  one  Good- 
man, who  had  a  farm  here  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth.  Stow,  who  was  born  as  late  as  1525, 
remembered  this  now  densely  populated  district 


24  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

while  it  was  still  open  country,  and  when  some  of 
the  principal  nobility  had  villas  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. Speaking  of  the  nunnery  in  the  Minories, 
he  says  :  "  On  the  south  side  thereof  was  sometime 
a  farm  belonging  to  the  said  nunnery,  at  the  which 
farm  I  myself,  in  my  youth,  have  fetched  many  a 
halfpennyworth  of  milk,  and  never  had  less  than 
three  ale-pints  for  a  halfpenny  in  the  summer,  nor 
less  than  one  ale-quart  for  a  halfpenny  in  the  win- 
ter ;  always  hot  from  the  kine  as  the  same  was 
milked  and  strained.  One  Trolop,  and  afterward 
Goodman,  were  the  farmers  there,  and  had  thirty 
or  forty  kine  to  the  pail." 

To  the  lovers  of  the  stage,  Goodman's  Fields 
will  always  be  interesting  as  having  been  the  site 
of  the  celebrated  Goodman's  Fields  Theatre.  It 
was  founded  in  1729,  by  one  Thomas  Odell,  in 
spite  of  declamations  from  the  pulpit  and  the  oppo- 
sition of  many  grave  and  respectable  citizens,  who 
dreaded  that  their  daughters  and  servants  might 
be  contaminated  by  its  close  vicinity.  Neither 
would  they  seem  to  have  been  very  wrong  in  their 
apprehensions,  inasmuch  as  Sir  John  Hawkins 
informs  us  that  the  new  theatre  was  soon  sur- 
rounded by  a  "halo  of  brothels."  The  clamour 
of  the  citizens  for  a  time  closed  the  theatre  in 
Goodman's  Fields,  but  on  the  2Oth  of  October, 
1732,  it  was  reopened  by  one  Henry  Giffard,  an 
actor.  It  was  here,  on  the  iQth  of  October,  1741, 
that  the  great  actor,  David  Garrick,  —  having  been 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  25 

previously  slighted  by  the  managers  of  Drury  Lane 
and  Covent  Garden,  —  made  his  first  appearance 
on  the  stage  in  the  character  of  Richard  the  Third. 
Such  was  his  success,  and  with  such  rapidity  did 
his  fame  spread,  that,  notwithstanding  the  distance 
of  Goodman's  Fields  from  the  fashionable  part  of 
London,  the  long  space  between  Temple  Bar  and 
Goodman's  Fields  is  said  to  have  been  nightly 
blocked  up  by  the  carriages  of  the  "  nobility  and 
gentry."  "All  the  run,"  writes  Horace  Walpole 
to  Sir  Horace  Mann,  on  the  26th  of  May,  1742, 
"is  now  after  Garrick,  a  wine-merchant,  who  is 
turned  player,  at  Goodman's  Fields.  He  plays  all 
parts,  and  is  a  very  good  mimic.  His  acting  I  have 
seen,  and  may  say  to  you,  who  will  not  say  it  again 
here,  I  see  nothing  wonderful  in  it ;  but  it  is  heresy 
to  say  so :  the  Duke  of  Argyll  says  he  is  superior 
to  Betterton."  Gray,  the  poet,  at  the  dawn  of 
Garrick's  memorable  career,  entertained  the  same 
disparaging  opinion  of  his  genius.  In  a  letter  to 
Shute  he  writes  :  "  Did  I  tell  you  about  Mr.  Gar- 
rick,  that  the  town  are  horn-mad  after ;  there  are 
a  dozen  dukes  of  a  night  at  Goodman's  Fields 
sometimes ;  and  yet  I  am  stiff  in  the  opposition." 
Garrick  remained  at  Goodman's  Fields  but  one 
season,  when  he  removed  to  Drury  Lane,  of  which 
theatre  he  became  joint  patentee  with  Lacy  in 
1747.  The  theatre  in  Goodman's  Fields  appears 
to  have  been  pulled  down  shortly  after  Garrick 
quitted  it.  Another  theatre  subsequently  rose 


26  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

on  its  site,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  June, 
1802. 

In  Rosemary  Lane,  now  Royal  Mint  Street, 
close  to  Goodman's  Fields,  died  Richard  Brandon, 
the  public  executioner,  who  is  said  to  have  be- 
headed Charles  the  First.  The  following  entry 
appears  in  the  burial  register  of  St.  Mary's,  White- 
chapel  :  "  1 649,  June  2 1  st.  Rich.  Brandon,  a  man 
out  of  Rosemary  Lane."  To  which  is  added,  "  This 
R.  Brandon  is  supposed  to  have  cut  off  the  head  of 
Charles  the  First."  Elsewhere  we  find :  "  He 
(Brandon)  likewise  confessed  that  he  had  thirty 
pounds  for  his  pains,  all  paid  him  in  half-crowns, 
within  an  hour  after  the  blow  was  given ;  and  that 
he  had  an  orange  stuck  full  of  cloves,  and  a  han- 
kercher,  out  of  the  king's  pocket,  so  soon  as  he 
was  carried  off  from  the  scaffold,  for  which  orange 
he  was  proffered  twenty  shillings  by  a  gentleman 
in  Whitehall,  but  refused  the  same,  and  afterward 
sold  it  for  ten  shillings  in  Rosemary  Lane."1 

Crossing  Rosemary  Lane,  we  pass  into  East 
Smithfield.  Here  it  was  that  Edmund  Spenser, 
the  poet,  first  saw  the  light.  Toward  the  east 
formerly  stood  a  Cistercian  Abbey,  founded  by 
Edward  the  Third,  called  the  Abbey  of  the  Graces, 
subject  to  the  monastery  of  Beaulieu.  To  the  south 

1  The  unenviable  distinction  of  having  beheaded  King  Charles 
has  been  attributed  to  more  than  one  individual,  but  from  such 
evidence  as  we  have  been  able  to  collect,  we  have  little  doubt 
that  Brandon  was  the  person. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  27 

stood,  till  within  a  few  years,  the  famous  hospi- 
tal and  collegiate  church  of  St.  Katherine,  founded 
in  1148,  by  Matilda  of  Boulogne,  wife  of  King 
Stephen,  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  her  son 
Baldwin  and  her  daughter  Matilda.  It  was  after- 
ward refounded  by  Eleanor  of  Castile,  widow  of 
Edward  the  First,  with  the  establishment  of  a 
master,  three  brethren,  three  sisters,  ten  poor 
women,  and  six  poor  clerks.  Queen  Philippa, 
wife  of  Edward  the  Third,  was  another  benefac- 
tress of  the  hospital  of  St.  Katherine's ;  and  it  is 
remarkable  that,  notwithstanding  the  many  revolu- 
tions which  have  taken  place  in  religion  and  poli- 
tics, the  patronage  for  more  than  seven  hundred 
years  has  continued  to  be  vested  in  the  Queens  of 
England.  The  late  Queen  Adelaide,  by  whom  the 
appointment  of  master  was  last  conferred,  was 
the  thirty-first  patroness. 

In  the  old  church  of  St.  Katherine  were  some 
ancient  and  interesting  monuments.  Under  a 
stately  tomb  rested  John  Holland,  Duke  of  Exe- 
ter, so  distinguished  for  his  gallantry  in  the  French 
wars  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  the  Fifth  and  Sixth. 
He  died  on  the  5th  of  August,  1447.  By  his 
side  lay  buried  his  two  wives,  Anne,  daughter  of 
Edmund,  fifth  Earl  of  Stafford,  and  Lady  Anne 
Montacute,  daughter  of  John,  Earl  of  Salisbury. 
Here  also  lay  buried  Lady  Constance,  the  duke's 
sister,  who  married,  first,  Thomas,  Lord  Mowbray, 
—  beheaded  at  York,  in  1405,  for  conspiring  against 


28  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Henry  the  Fourth,  —  and  secondly,  Sir  John  Grey 
(eldest  son  of  Lord  Grey  de  Ruthyn),  who  was 
a  Knight  of  the  Garter,  and  fought  on  the  field  of 
Agincourt.  The  old  church  of  St.  Katherine, 
together  with  no  fewer  than  twelve  hundred  and 
fifty  houses,  was  taken  down  in  1826,  in  order  to 
make  room  for  the  present  St.  Katherine's  docks. 
The  hospital  and  master's  residence  have  been 
rebuilt  in  the  Regent's  Park,  to  the  chapel  of 
which  has  been  transferred  the  stately  monument 
of  the  Duke  of  Exeter,  together  with  an  elaborately 
carved  old  pulpit. 

From  East  Smith  field  we  pass  into  the  ancient 
village  of  Ratcliffe  Highway,  described  by  Camden 
in  his  day  as  being  "  a  little  town  wherein  lived 
many  sailors,"  and  deriving  its  name  from  a  red 
cliff  which  was  formerly  visible  here.  "  Frym 
hence,"  says  Pennant,  "the  gallant  Sir  Hugh 
Willoughby  took  his  departure,  in  1553,  on  his 
fatal  voyage  for  discovering  the  northeast  passage 
to  China.  He  sailed  with  great  pomp  by  Green- 
wich, where  the  court  then  lay.  Mutual  honours 
were  paid  on  both  sides.  The  council  and  courtiers 
appeared  at  the  windows,  and  the  people  covered 
the  shores.  The  young  king,  Edward  the  Sixth, 
alone  lost  the  noble  and  novel  sight,  for  he  then 
lay  on  his  death-bed,  so  that  the  principal  object 
of  the  parade  was  disappointed."  Pennant  omits 
to  mention  that  the  gallant  adventurer  was  frozen 
to  death  in  the  northern  seas. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  29 

In  Ratcliffe  Highway  occurred,  in  1811,  those 
fearful  massacres  of  the  Marr  and  Williamson 
families,  which,  at  the  time,  spread  a  consternation 
throughout  the  metropolis,  never  surpassed  per- 
haps by  any  similar  atrocities.  Terror  was  written 
on  every  face.  Every  householder  provided  him- 
self with  a  blunderbuss  ;  and  one  shopkeeper  alone 
is  said  to  have  sold  no  fewer  than  three  hundred 
watchmen's  rattles  in  ten  hours.  The  first  of 
these  tragedies  took  place  on  the  /th  of  December, 
1811,  at  No.  29  Ratcliffe  Highway,  a  house  occu- 
pied by  an  opulent  laceman  of  the  name  of  Marr. 
His  family  consisted  of  Marr  himself,  his  wife, 
their  infant  child,  a  shop-boy,  and  a  female  servant. 
About  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  the  latter  was  sent 
out  to  purchase  some  supper,  and  on  her  return,  in 
a  quarter  of  an  hour,  repeatedly  rang  the  bell,  but 
to  no  purpose,  for  admittance.  Subsequently  the 
house  was  broken  open,  when,  to  the  horror  of 
those  who  entered  it,  they  discovered  that  the 
whole  of  the  inmates,  including  even  the  infant  in 
its  cradle,  had  been  barbarously  murdered.  The 
second  tragedy  took  place  twelve  days  afterward, 
on  the  i  Qth  of  December,  about  the  same  hour  of 
the  night,  at  the  King's  Arms  public-house  in  Old 
Gravel  Lane,  Ratcliffe  Highway.  The  victims  on 
this  occasion  were  the  landlord  Williamson,  his 
wife,  and  a  female  servant.  The  perpetrator,  or 
perpetrators,  of  these  horrors,  were  never  dis- 
covered. Suspicion  attached  itself  to  one  Williams, 


30  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

and  the  world  anxiously  anticipated  the  result  of 
his  trial.  He  found  means,  however,  to  hang 
himself  in  prison,  and  his  secret,  if  he  had  any 
to  divulge,  died  with  him. 

Ratcliffe  Highway,  now  St.  George  Street,  which 
Stow  describes  as,  in  his  memory,  a  large  highway 
"with  fair  elms  on  both  the  sides,"  leads  us  into 
what  was  once  the  hamlet  of  Shadwell,  extending 
to  the  banks  of  the  Thames.  It  is  said  to  have 
derived  its  name  from  a  fine  spring  (probably 
called  shady  well),  near  the  south  wall  of  the 
churchyard.  In  the  time  of  Charles  the  Second 
this  now  populous  district  was  still  open  country, 
and  was  consequently  fixed  upon  as  one  of  the 
principal  burial-places  for  the  victims  of  the  great 
plague  in  1665.  The  frightful  plague-pit  was  situ- 
ated where  the  modern  church  of  St.  Paul's, 
Shadwell,  now  stands. 

Wapping,  also  formerly  a  hamlet,  stretches  along 
the  river's  side  from  Lower  Shadwell  to  St.  Kath- 
erine's.  As  late  as  the  year  1629,  we  find  King 
Charles  the  First,  who  had  been  hunting  at  Wan- 
stead,  in  Essex,  killing  a  stag  in  Nightingale  Lane, 
Wapping.  The  name  and  site  are  still  preserved  in 
Nightingale  Lane,  being  the  street  which  divides 
the  London  docks  from  St.  Katherine's  docks. 
The  spot  where  the  church  of  St.  John,  Wapping, 
now  stands,  was  another  of  the  principal  burial- 
places  in  the  great  plague.  Here  was  the  famous 
Execution  Dock,  where  pirates,  and  others,  con- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  31 

demned  for  offences  on  the  high  seas,  were  for- 
merly executed.  They  were  hanged  on  a  temporary 
gibbet  at  low  water  mark,  the  body  being  allowed 
to  remain  there  till  it  had  been  three  times  over- 
flowed by  the  tide.  Maitland  mentions  a  remark- 
able anecdote  of  one  of  these  piratical  criminals 
having  been  rescued  from  death  at  the  eleventh 
hour.  This  was  one  James  Buchanan,  who  was 
condemned  to  death  in  December,  1738,  for  the 
murder  of  the  fourth  mate  of  the  Royal  Guardian 
Indiaman,  in  the  Canton  River.  He  was  brought 
from  Newgate  to  Execution  Dock,  in  pursuance  of 
his  sentence,  and  had  actually  been  suspended 
five  minutes,  when  he  was  cut  down  by  a  gang  of 
sailors,  who  conveyed  him  to  their  vessel,  and 
carried  him  in  triumph  down  the  river.  He  after- 
ward, it  is  said,  succeeded  in  escaping  in  safety  to 
France. 

It  was  in  a  mean  public-house  in  Wapping, 
called  the  Red  Cow,  in  Anchor  and  Hope  Alley, 
that  the  inhuman  Judge  Jeffreys  was  discovered 
looking  out  of  a  window  in  a  sailor's  dress.  It  was 
not  without  difficulty  that  the  crowd  which  soon 
assembled  was  prevented  from  tearing  him  to 
pieces.  He  was  conducted  to  the  Tower,  where, 
shortly  afterward,  he  died,  partly  from  the  effect 
produced  on  his  constitution  by  strong  liquors,  and 
partly  from  the  injuries  which  he  had  received  from 
the  infuriated  mob. 

To  the  northeast  of  Wapping  is  the  crowded 


32  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

district  of  Stepney,  which  derives  its  name  from 
the  Saxon  manor  of  Stebenhythe,  or  Stebunhethe. 
Stepney  was  a  village,  and  had  its  church,  as  far 
back  as  the  days  of  the  Saxons,  and  in  the  time  of 
Elizabeth  was  the  most  eastern  part  of  London. 
In  the  reign  of  William  the  Conqueror,  and  even 
previous  to  that  period,  Stepney  church  was  known 
as  Ecclesia  omnium  Sanctorum,  or  All  Saints,  but 
was  subsequently  dedicated  to  St.  Dunstan,  whose 
name  it  at  present  bears.  The  church  itself  pos- 
sesses but  little  interest.  Here,  however,  were 
buried  Sir  Thomas  Spert,  founder  of  the  Trinity 
House  and  comptroller  of  the  navy  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Eighth ; '  the  learned  Richard  Pace, 
the  friend  of  Erasmus,  who  died  Vicar  of  Stepney 
in  1532;  the  father  of  John  Strype,  the  his- 
torian ;  and  the  father  of  John  Entick,  the  lexi- 
cographer, who  kept  a  school  in  the  neighbourhood. 
Here  also  is  to  be  traced  the  curious  epitaph  to 
which  the  Spectator  has  given  celebrity  : 

"  Here  Thomas  Sapper  lyes  interred.     Ah,  why? 
Born  in  New  England,  did  in  London  dye ; 
Was  the  third  son  of  eight,  begot  upon 
His  mother  Martha  by  his  father  John. 
Much  favour'd  by  his  Prince  he  'gan  to  be, 
But  nipt  by  Death  at  th'  age  of  Twenty-three. 
Fatal  to  him  was  that  we  small-pox  name, 
By  which  his  mother  and  two  brethren  came 

1  He  died  on  the  8th  September,  1541,  and  the  monument  to 
his  memory  was  erected  by  the  master  and  elder  brethren  of  the 
Trinity  House  in  1622,  eighty-one  years  after  his  death. 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  33 

Also  to  breathe  their  last  nine  years  before, 
And  now  have  left  their  father  to  deplore 
The  loss  of  all  his  children,  with  his  wife, 
Who  was  the  joy  and  comfort  of  his  life. 

Deceased,  June  18,  1687." 

Other  monumental  inscriptions  may  be  found 
in  St.  Dunstan's  Church,  scarcely  less  curious  than 
the  foregoing. 

In  modern  maps  of  London  may  still  be  traced 
a  small  site  designated  as  "  King  John's  Palace." 
According  to  tradition,  King  John  had  a  palace 
here,  and  as  there  is  no  doubt  that  Edward  the 
First  held  a  Parliament  at  Stepney  in  1292,  it  is 
not  impossible  that  his  predecessors  may  have 
erected  a  suburban  palace  in  this  vicinity.  Here 
also  stood  Worcester  House,  which,  in  the  reigns 
of  Charles  the  First  and  Second,  was  successively 
the  residence  of  Henry  and  Edward,  first  and 
second  Marquises  of  Worcester,  alike  distinguished 
for  their  chivalrous  attachment  to  Charles  the 
First.  Worcester  House,  it  may  be  remarked, 
formed  but  a  small  part  of  what  had  been  for- 
merly distinguished  as  "  the  great  place,"  namely, 
the  princely  palace  of  Sir  Henry  Colet,  Lord 
Mayor  of  London. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  parish  of  Stepney  appear 
to  have  suffered  frightfully  during  the  raging  of 
the  great  plague  in  1665.  "Stepney  parish,"  says 
Defoe,  "had  a  piece  of  ground  taken  in  to  bury 
their  dead,  close  to  the  churchyard,  and  which,  for 


34  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

that  very  reason,  was  left  open,  and  is  since,  I 
suppose,  taken  into  the  same  churchyard."  We 
learn  from  the  same  authority,  that  within  one 
year  Stepney  had  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  sextons,  grave-diggers,  and  their  assistants ; 
the  latter  consisting  of  bearers,  bellmen,  and  the 
drivers  of  the  carts  which  were  employed  in  re> 
moving  the  dead. 


CHAPTER   II. 

BILLINGSGATE,   COLE    HARBOUR,  STEEL  -  YARD,    THE 
VINTRY. 

Etymology  of  Billingsgate  —  Principal  Ports  of  London  —  Fish- 
mongers' Company  —  Sir  William  Walworth  —  Seminary  for 
Pickpockets  —  Great  Fire  of  London  —  Hubert's  Confession. 
—  Remarkable  Edifices  in  and  near  Thames  Street. 

LET  us  return  to  Tower  Hill,  and,  skirting 
Thames  Street  from  Billingsgate  to  Blackfriars 
Bridge,  point  out  in  our  route  the  principal  objects 
worthy  of  notice. 

Billingsgate,  one  of  the  ancient  water-gates,  or 
ports,  of  the  city  of  London,  is  situated  close  to 
the  custom-house,  between  the  Tower  and  London 
Bridge.  Antiquaries  have  ingeniously  derived  its 
name  from  Belin,  King  of  the  Britons,  who  reigned 
about  four  hundred  and  sixty  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  whose  bones,  according  to 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  having  been  burned  to 
ashes,  were  placed  in  a  vessel  of  brass,  and  set  on 
a  high  pinnacle  over  the  gate.  Stow,  however, 
considers  that  it  took  its  name  from  one  Beling  or 
Billing,  "as  Somer's  Key,  Smart's  Key,  Frost 

35 


36  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Wharf,  and  others  thereby,  took  their  names  of 
their  owners." 

At  all  events,  Billingsgate  was  unquestionably 
the  principal  port  or  landing-place  in  London  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Ethelred  the  Second,  whose 
reign  commenced  in  the  tenth  century.  At  a 
council  held  at  Wantage,  in  Berkshire,  in  this 
reign,  the  toll,  or  custom,  to  be  levied  on  merchant 
vessels  discharging  their  goods  at  Billingsgate,  was 
fixed  at  proportionate  rates.  It  was  ordered  that 
every  small  boat  should  pay  a  halfpenny ;  a  large 
boat  with  sails,  one  penny ;  ships,  four  pennies ; 
vessels  laden  with  wood,  one  piece  of  timber ; 
and  vessels  laden  with  fish,  one  halfpenny  or  one 
penny,  according  to  their  size.  The  two  other 
principal  ports  of  London,  in  the  days  of  our  Nor- 
man sovereigns,  were  Down-gate,  the  present 
Dowgate,  and  the  Queen's  Hythe,  still  known  as 
Queenhithe.  As  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  we 
find  an  enactment,  that  if  one  vessel  only  should 
come  up  the  river  to  London,  it  should  discharge 
its  cargo  at  the  Queen's  Hythe ;  if  two  should 
come  up  at  the  same  time,  that  one  should  dis- 
charge at  Billingsgate ;  if  three,  two  were  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  Queen's  Hythe,  or  harbour,  and  the 
third  to  Billingsgate :  but  "  always  the  more  "  to 
Queenshithe.  The  reason  for  the  preference  is 
evident ;  the  customs,  or  tolls,  received  at  Queen- 
hithe having  been  the  perquisites  of  the  Queen  of 
England. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  37 

Billingsgate  continued  to  be  a  flourishing  port 
long  after  Dowgate  had  ceased  to  be  a  landing- 
place  for  merchandise,  and  also  after  the  harbour 
dues  of  Queenhithe  had  so  fallen  off  that  they 
realised  no  more  than  fifteen  pounds  a  year.  In 
the  days  of  Stow  it  stood  alone,  for  size,  conve- 
nience, and  superiority  of  every  kind.  "  It  is  at 
this  present,"  writes  the  old  antiquary,  "a  large 
water-gate,  port,  or  harbour,  for  ships  and  boats, 
commonly  arriving  there  with  fish,  both  fresh  and 
salt,  shell-fishes,  salt,  onions,  oranges,  and  other 
fruits  and  roots,  wheat,  rye,  and  grain  of  diverse 
sorts,  for  the  service  of  the  city  and  the  parts  of 
this  realm  adjoining."  The  great  advantage  pos- 
sessed by  Billingsgate  consisted  in  its  being  on 
the  east,  or  near,  side  of  the  bridge ;  thus  pre- 
cluding the  necessity  and  risk  of  vessels  passing 
under  it ;  the  fall  of  water  between  the  arches 
having  been,  as  late  as  our  own  time,  an  obstacle 
to  traffic,  as  well  as  dangerous  to  smaller  vessels. 

Although,  singularly  enough,  Billingsgate  was 
not  constituted  "  a  free  market  for  the  sale  of  fish  " 
till  the  reign  of  William  the  Third,  it  was  un- 
questionably the  great  landing-place  for  fish  from 
the  earliest  times ;  indeed,  the  very  preamble  to 
the  Act  of  Parliament  speaks  of  it  as  having  been, 
"time  out  of  mind,  a  free  market  in  all  manner 
of  floating  and  salt  fish,  as  also  for  all  manner  of 
floating  and  shell-fish."  The  very  names  of  the 
streets  in  the  vicinity  of  Billingsgate  show  how 


38  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

closely  associated  was  the  trade  of  this  locality 
with  the  fish-market  of  Billingsgate.  Fish  Street 
Hill,  Fish  Yard,  near  Eastcheap,  and  Fishmongers' 
Hall  are  all  in  this  immediate  neighbourhood, 
reminding  us  of  the  olden  time,  when  "  no  num- 
ber of  knights  or  strangers  could  enter  the  city 
at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night "  without  being 
able  to  supply  themselves  with  the  choicest  fish 
in  season.  Stow,  speaking  of  a  row  of  houses 
in  Old  Fish  Street,  observes :  "  These  houses, 
now  possessed  by  fishmongers,  were  at  the  first 
but  movable  boards,  or  stalls,  set  out  on  mar- 
ket-days, to  show  their  fish  there  to  be  sold ; 
but,  procuring  license  to  set  up  sheds,  they  grew 
to  shops,  and  by  little  and  little  to  tall  houses,  of 
three  or  four  stories  in  height,  and  now  are  called 
Fish  Street.  Walter  Tuck,  fishmonger  and  mayor, 
1349,  had  two  shops  in  Old  Fish  Street,  over 
against  St.  Nicholas  Church,  the  one  rented  five 
shillings  the  year,  the  other  four  shillings."  Ac- 
cording to  Stow,  Friday  Street  derives  its  name 
from  its  having  been  inhabited  by  fishmongers, 
who  attended  Friday's  market  ;  Friday,  in  Roman 
Catholic  times,  having  been  the  great  day  for  the 
sale  of  fish. 

Anciently  the  fishmongers  were  divided  into 
two  companies,  —  the  Salt-fishmongers,  incorpo- 
rated in  1433,  and  the  Stock-fishmongers,  in  1509, 
—  nor  was  it  till  1536  that  the  two  companies 
were  united  by  Henry  the  Eighth.  Till  within 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  39 

the  last  few  years  the  Hall  of  the  Fishmongers, 
built  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  was  situated  in 
Thames  Street ;  but  the  company  now  occupy 
a  fine  modern  building,  erected  in  1831,  close 
to  the  north  approach  of  London  Bridge.  The 
famous  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  Sir  William  Wai- 
worth,  who  killed  Wat  Tyler  at  Smithfield,  was 
a  member  of  this  company,  his  statue  being  still 
a  conspicuous  object  in  Fishmongers'  Hall.  He 
is  represented  in  the  act  of  striking  the  insolent 
rebel  with  a  real  dagger,  which  is  affirmed  to  be 
the  identical  weapon  used  by  him  on  the  memora- 
ble occasion.  On  the  pedestal  is  the  following 
inscription : 

"  Brave  Walworth,  knight,  Lord  Mayor,  yt  slew 

Rebellious  Tyler  in  his  alarmes ; 
The  King,  therefor,  did  give  in  lieu 

The  dagger  to  the  city's  armes ; 
In  the  4th  year  of  Richard  II.,  Anno  Domini  1381." 

Unfortunately  for  the  veracity  of  this  inscrip- 
tion, the  dagger  formed  the  first  quarter  of  the 
city  arms  long  before  the  days  of  Sir  William 
Walworth.  It  was,  indeed,  intended  to  represent 
the  sword  of  St.  Peter,  the  patron  saint  of  the 
corporation. 

Adjoining  Billingsgate,  on  the  east  side,  stood 
Smart's  Quay,  or  wharf,  which  we  find  noticed 
in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  as  containing  an 
ingenious  seminary  for  the  instruction  of  young 


40  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

thieves.  The  following  extract  of  a  letter,  ad- 
dressed to  Lord  Burghleigh,  in  July,  1585,  by 
Fleetwood,  the  Recorder  of  London,  evinces  that 
the  "  art  and  mystery "  of  picking  pockets  was 
brought  to  considerable  perfection  in  the  sixteenth 
century : 

"  Amongst  our  travels  this  one  matter  tumbled 
out  by  the  way.  One  Wotton,  a  gentleman  born, 
and  sometime  a  merchant  of  good  credit,  having 
fallen  by  time  into  decay,  kept  an  ale-house  at 
Smart's  Key,  near  Billingsgate ;  and  after,  for  some 
misdemeanour,  being  put  down,  he  reared  up  a  new 
trade  of  life,  and  in  the  same  house  he  procured 
all  the  cut-purses  about  this  city  to  repair  to  his 
said  house.  There  was  a  school-house  set  up  to 
learn  young  boys  to  cut  purses ;  there  were  hung 
up  two  devices :  the  one  was  a  pocket,  the  other 
was  a  purse.  The  pocket  had  in  it  certain  counters, 
and  was  hung  about  with  hawk's  bells,  and  over 
the  top  did  hang  a  little  searing-bell ;  and  he  that 
could  take  out  a  counter  without  any  noise  was 
allowed  to  be  a  '  public  hoyster ; '  and  he  that 
could  take  a  piece  of  silver  out  of  the  purse  with- 
out the  noise  of  any  of  the  bells,  he  was  adjudged 
a  'judicial  nipper.'  N.  B.  —  That  a  'hoyster'  is 
a  pickpocket,  and  a  'nipper'  is  termed  a  pick- 
purse,  or  a  cut-purse." 

Opposite  to  Billingsgate,  on  the  north  side  of 
Thames  Street,  is  St.  Mary-at-Hill,  on  the  west 
side  of  which  is  a  church,  dedicated  to  the  Virgin 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  41 

Mary.  Of  the  date  of  its  foundation  nothing  cer- 
tain is  known,  except  that  Rose  de  Wyrtell  founded 
a  chauntry  on  the  spot  about  the  year  1336.  It 
suffered  severely  from  the  fire  of  London,  in 
consequence  of  which  the  interior  and  the  east 
end  were  rebuilt  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren  between 
the  years  1672  and  1677.  Since  Wren's  time 
considerable  portions  of  the  building  have  been 
taken  down  and  rebuilt,  the  old  portions,  namely, 
the  tower  and  the  west  end,  having  been  restored 
with  brick.  Little,  indeed,  of  Wren's  work  now 
remains,  nor  does  that  little  add  much  to  his 
reputation  as  an  architect.  In  this  church,  on  the 
27th  of  May,  1731,  Doctor  Young,  the  author  of 
the  "Night  Thoughts,"  was  married  to  Lady 
Elizabeth  Lee,  widow  of  Colonel  Lee,  and  daughter 
of  Edward,  first  Earl  of  Litchfield.  The  chancel 
contains  the  remains  of  the  Rev.  John  Brand,  the 
antiquary,  who  was  for  many  years  rector  of  the 
parish.  He  died  at  his  apartments  in  Somerset 
House  in  1806. 

Running  parallel  with  St.  Mary-at-Hill  are  Bo- 
tolph  Lane  and  Pudding  Lane,  the  former  contain- 
ing the  parochial  church,  dedicated  to  St.  George 
and  St.  Botolph.  This  is  another  of  Wren's 
churches,  erected  after  the  fire  of  London,  and 
boasts  neither  historical  interest  nor  architectural 
merit.  In  Botolph  Lane  stood  the  residence  of 
that  ancient  and  illustrious  race,  the  Fitzalans, 
Earls  of  Arundel.  Henry>  the  eighteenth  and 


42  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

last  earl  in  the  male  line,  who  is  known  to  have 
aspired  to  the  hand  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  was  re- 
siding here  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1579. 

Pudding  Lane  is  famous  as  the  spot  where  the 
great  fire  first  broke  out,  on  the  2d  of  September, 
1666.  In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  the  fol- 
lowing inscription  was  to  be  seen  on  the  site  of  the 
house  where  it  commenced ;  but  in  consequence 
of  the  inconvenience  caused  by  the  number  of 
passers-by,  who  stopped  to  read  it,  it  was  removed  : 

"  Here,  by  the  permission  of  Heaven,  Hell 
broke  loose  upon  this  Protestant  city,  from  the 
malicious  hearts  of  barbarous  Papists,  by  the 
hand  of  their  agent,  Hubert,  who  confessed,  and 
on  the  ruins  of  this  place  declared  the  fact,  for 
which  he  was  hanged,  viz.  —  That  here  began  that 
dreadful  fire  which  is  described,  and  perpetuated 
on,  by  the  neighbouring  pillar,  erected  anno  1680, 
in  the  Mayoralty  of  Sir  Patience  Ward,  Knight." 

Hubert,  the  person  here  referred  to,  was  hanged 
on  his  own  confession  that  his  hand  had  lighted 
the  flame  which  laid  London  in  ashes.  His  state- 
ment was  that  he  had  placed  a  fireball  at  the  end 
of  a  poll,  and,  after  having  lighted  it,  had  thrust 
it  into  the  window  of  the  house  in  which  the 
fire  subsequently  broke  out.  There  can  be  little 
doubt,  however,  that  Hubert  was  a  mere  mono- 
maniac, in  whose  mind  the  awful  conflagration  had 
raised  the  delusion  that  he  was  the  author  of  the 
calamity ;  indeed,  the  captain  of  the  vessel  which 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  43 

brought  him  to  England  —  a  perfectly  disinter- 
ested person  —  swore  positively  that  he  did  not 
land  till  two  days  after  the  fire.  All,  indeed,  that 
is  known  of  the  origin  of  the  conflagration  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  concise  words  of  Lord  Claren- 
don. "There  was  never  any  probable  evidence 
that  there  was  any  other  cause  of  that  woful  fire 
than  the  displeasure  of  God  Almighty."  No.  25, 
Pudding  Lane,  is  said  to  be  the  site  of  the  house 
in  which  the  fire  broke  out.  It  was  then  occupied 
by  one  Farryner,  baker  to  Charles  the  Second. 

Still  proceeding  westward,  along  Thames  Street, 
on  the  right  is  St.  Michael's,  or  Miles  Lane,  lead- 
ing to  what  remains  of  Crooked  Lane,  in  which 
stood  the  church  of  St.  Michael,  another  of  Wren's 
churches,  erected  after  the  destruction  of  the  an- 
cient edifice  by  the  fire  of  London.  It  was  pulled 
down,  together  with  a  portion  of  Crooked  Lane, 
in  1831,  to  make  room  for  the  approaches  to  New 
London  Bridge.  A  church  existed  on  this  spot 
at  least  as  early  as  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, at  which  period  John  de  Borham  is  men- 
tioned as  rector.  In  1 366  it  was  rebuilt  by  John 
de  Louken,  "stock-fishmonger,"  and  four  times 
Lord  Mayor'  of  London,  to  whom  the  celebrated 
Sir  William  Walworth  was  at  one  time  apprentice. 
Both  master  and  man  were  buried  in  this  church. 
De  Louken  is  said  to  have  been  interred  under  "  a 
fair  marble  tomb,"  which  was  probably  destroyed 
in  the  great  fire,  as  was  that  of  the  stalwart  Sir 


44  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

William   Walworth,  on  whose   tomb,  as  Weever 
informs  us,  were  inscribed  the  following  lines : 

"  Here  under  lieth  a  man  of  fame, 
William  Walworth  called  by  name  •, 
Fishmonger  he  was  in  lifetime  here, 
And  twice  Lord  Mayor,  as  in  book  appear ; 
Who,  with  courage  stout  and  manly  might, 
Slew  Wat  Tyler  in  King  Richard's  sight ; 
For  which  act  done,  and  true  intent, 
The  king  made  him  knight  incontinent; 
And  gave  him  arms,  as  here  you  see, 
To  declare  his  feat  and  chivalry ; 
He  left  his  life,  the  year  of  our  Lord 
Thirteen  hundred  fourscore  three  and  odd." 

Sir  William  resided  in  a  house  adjoining  St. 
Michael's  Church.  This  house  he  bequeathed, 
together  with  other  property,  for  the  purpose  of 
founding  a  college,  consisting  of  a  master  and 
nine  priests,  who  were  attached  to  the  church. 

The  following  brief  and  quaint  epitaph  was 
copied  by  Weever  from  a  monument  in  the  old 
church  : 

"  Here  lyeth,  wrapt  in  clay, 
The  body  of  William  Wray  ; 
I  have  no  more  to  say." 

A  little  beyond  Miles  Lane,  on  the  south  side 
of  Thames  Street,  is  Old  Swan  Lane,  leading  to 
the  Old  Swan  Stairs,  close  to  London  Bridge,  at 
which  spot  the  river-steamers  embark  their  pas- 
sengers. As  far  back  as  the  reign  of  Henry  the 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  45 

Sixth,  these  stairs  bore  their  present  appellation 
of  the  Old  Swan  Stairs  ;  indeed,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  stairs  and  landing-places  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  still  retain  the  same  names  by  which 
they  were  distinguished  in  the  days  of  the  Tudors 
and  Plantagenets.  Boswell  mentions  his  landing 
with  Doctor  Johnson  at  the  Old  Swan  Stairs, 
whence  they  walked  to  Billingsgate,  where  they 
"took  oars  "  for  Greenwich.  Their  object  in  adopt- 
ing this  short,  circuitous  route,  which  was  a  com- 
mon practice  at  the  period,  was  evidently  to  avoid 
the  danger  of  "shooting"  Old  London  Bridge. 

To  the  west  of  the  Old  Swan  Stairs  was  Cold 
Harborough,  or  Cold  Inn,  corrupted  into  Cole 
Harbour.  Here,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Third,  stood  Poultney  Inn,  the  magnificent  man- 
sion of  Sir  John  Poultney,  four  times  Lord  Mayor 
of  London.  At  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury it  was  the  residence  of  the  ill-fated  John 
Holland,  Duke  of  Exeter,  third  son  of  Thomas 
Holland,  Earl  of  Kent,  by  the  celebrated  heiress, 
Joan  Plantagenet,  "  the  Fair  Maid  of  Kent."  He 
was  half-brother  of  King  Richard  the  Second, 
whom  he  entertained  here  on  one  occasion  with 
great  magnificence.  He  was  succeeded  in  the 
occupation  of  Poultney  Inn  by  Edmund  of  Lang- 
ley,  Earl  of  Cambridge,  fifth  son  of  Edward  the 
Third ;  and  subsequently  by  Henry  Holland,  sec- 
ond Duke  of  Exeter,  the  gallant  and  devoted 
adherent  of  the  unfortunate  Henry  the  Sixth. 


46  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

In  1485  Poultney  Inn  was  granted  by  Richard 
the  Third  for  the  use  of  the  heralds,  who,  how- 
ever, could  have  occupied  it  but  a  short  time, 
when  it  became  the  residence  of  the  celebrated 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Richmond,  mother  of 
Henry  the  Seventh.  Here,  in  1497,  we  find 
her  giving  a  splendid  entertainment  to  the  nobles 
and  prelates  who  accompanied  Catherine  of  Ara- 
gon  from  Spain  previously  to  her  marriage  with 
Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales.  Not  long  after  this 
time  it  was  conferred  by  Henry  on  George  Tal- 
bot,  fourth  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  one  of  his  ablest 
and  bravest  subjects.  In  the  following  reign  we 
find  it  the  temporary  palace  of  Tunstal,  Bishop 
of  Durham.  Edward  the  Sixth  granted  it  to 
Francis,  fifth  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  from  which 
time  it  took  the  name  of  Shrewsbury  House.  It 
was  subsequently  pulled  down  by  George,  the 
sixth  earl,  who  erected  several  small  tenements  on 
its  site.  Not  many  years  afterward,  we  find  Cole 
Harbour  referred  to  by  Ben  Jonson,  Bishop  Hall, 
and  by  other  writers  of  the  Elizabethan  age,  as 
among  the  most  squalid  and  indifferent  localities 
in  London.  The  site  is  now  principally  occupied 
by  Calvert's  brewery. 

Close  to  Cole  Harbour  was  the  Steel-yard,  the 
origin  of  the  name  of  which  has  occasioned  some 
discussion  among  antiquaries.  Whether  it  derives 
its  appellation  from  the  German  word  Staal-hoffY 
signifying  a  place  of  trade,  from  the  quantity  of 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  47 

steel  which  is  said  to  have  been  anciently  sold 
there,  or  from  the  king's  "  Steel-yard,"  or  beam, 
which  was  used  for  ascertaining  the  amount 
of  tonnage  of  imported  goods,  will  probably  ever 
remain  a  disputed  question.  Here,  before  the 
Norman  conquest,  is  said  to  have  been  situ- 
ated the  quay  where  the  Hanse  merchants,  by 
whom  the  English  were  first  taught  the  arts  of 
commerce,  landed  their  merchandise,  as  well  as 
wheat,  rye,  and  other  grain.  For  centuries  they 
continued  to  be  the  principal  importers  into  the 
kingdom,  in  consequence  of  which  they  were 
allowed  extraordinary  privileges,  having  a  guild- 
hall and  an  alderman  of  their  own.  In  return  for 
these  favours  they  were  required  to  keep  one  of 
the  city  gates,  Bishop' s-gate,  in  perfect  repair,  and 
to  assist  with  money  and  men  in  defending  it  in 
time  of  need.  Consequently,  in  1479  we  nnc^  ^ 
entirely  rebuilt  at  their  expense.  The  company  fell 
gradually  into  decay,  and  in  1597-98  was  finally 
dissolved  by  proclamation,  the  merchants  being 
commanded  to  quit  the  kingdom  by  the  28th  of 
February  in  that  year. 

On  the  south  side  of  Thames  Street,  close  to 
where  the  Steel-yard  formerly  stood,  is  the  church 
of  Allhallows  the  Great,  anciently  called  Allhal- 
lows  the  More,  and  sometimes  Allhallows  in  the 
Ropery,  from  its  being  situated  in  the  district 
chiefly  inhabited  by  rope-makers.  It  was  founded 
in  1361,  by  the  Despencer  family,  from  whom 


4»  LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  presentation  passed  by  marriage  to  the  Beau- 
champs,  Earls  of  Warwick,  and  subsequently  to 
the  Crown.  The  present  uninteresting  church 
was  built  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  shortly  after 
the  destruction  of  the  old  edifice  by  fire,  in  1666. 
Stow  informs  us  that  there  was  a  statue  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  the  old  church,  to  which  the  following 
verses  were  attached : 

"  If  royal  virtue  ever  crowned  a  crown ; 
If  ever  mildness  shined  in  majesty ; 
If  ever  honour  honoured  true  renown; 
If  ever  courage  dwelt  with  clemency; 

"  If  ever  Princess  put  all  Princes  down, 
For  temperance,  prowess,  prudence,  equity; 
This,  this  was  she,  that  in  despite  of  death 
Lives  still  admired,  —  adored  Elizabeth  !  " 

The  only  object  of  any  interest  in  the  interior 
of  the  church  is  a  handsome  oak  screen,  —  said  to 
have  been  manufactured  in  Hamburg,  —  which  was 
presented  to  the  church  by  the  Hanse  merchants, 
in  grateful  memory  of  their  connection  with  the 
parish. 

On  the  south  side  of  Thames  Street,  between  the 
Steel-yard  and  Dowgate,  stood  that  magnificent 
mansion  of  the  olden  time,  the  Erber,  —  so  inti- 
mately associated  with  the  stirring  times  of  chiv- 
alry, and  with  more  than  one  illustrious  name.  It 
was  granted  by  Edward  the  Third  to  the  gallant 
and  learned  Sir  Geoffrey  Le  Scrope.  Its  next 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  49 

illustrious  occupant  was  John,  Lord  Neville  of 
Raby,  the  heroic  companion  in  arms  of  Edward 
the  Third,  from  whom  it  descended  to  his  son, 
Ralph  Neville,  first  Earl  of  Westmoreland.  This 
was  that  powerful  lord  who  was  so  instrumental  in 
raising  Henry,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  to  the  throne 
as  Henry  the  Fourth,  and  who  afterward  so  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  that  Border  warfare,  and  in 
those  successful  operations  against  the  Percies 
which  led  to  the  battle  of  Shrewsbury,  and  to  the 
untimely  end  of  the  impetuous  Harry  Hotspur. 

From  the  Earl  of  Westmoreland  the  Erber 
passed  into  the  possession  of  another  branch  of 
the  Nevilles,  the  Earls  of  Salisbury  and  Warwick. 
But  the  principal  interest  attached  to  the  spot  is 
from  its  having  been  occupied  by  the  residence 
of  the  great  "  kingmaker,"  Richard,  Earl  of  War- 
wick. Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  his  princely 
hospitality,  from  the  fact  that,  at  his  house  in 
London,  no  fewer  than  six  oxen  were  daily  con- 
sumed by  his  retainers  at  breakfast ;  any  person, 
moreover,  who  happened  to  have  access  to  his 
establishment,  being  permitted  to  take  away  with 
him  "  as  much  sodden  and  roast  meat  as  he  might 
carry  upon  a  long  dagger."  After  the  death  of 
the  earl,  the  ragged  staff  and  white  cross  disap- 
peared from  over  the  portals  of  the  Erber;  and 
not  long  afterward  we  find  it  occupied  by  the 
ill-fated  George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  "false,  fleet- 
ing, perjured  Clarence,"  who  obtained  a  grant  of 


SO  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

it  from  Parliament  in  right  of  his  wife,  Isabel, 
daughter  of  the  kingmaker.  After  the  death  of 
Clarence,  the  Erber  became  the  residence  of  his 
younger  brother,  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  on 
whose  usurpation,  as  Richard  the  Third,  we  find  it 
styled  the  King's  Palace,  and  undergoing  consid- 
erable repairs.  During  the  brief  reign  of  Richard 
it  was  occupied  for  him  by  one  Ralph  Darnel,  a 
yeoman  of  the  Crown ;  but  on  the  death  of  the 
usurper,  was  restored  to  Edward,  son  of  the  Duke 
of  Clarence,  in  whose  possession  it  remained  till 
his  attainder  in  August,  1500.  It  was  rebuilt  in 
1584,  by  Sir  Thomas  Pullison,  Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  and  not  long  afterward  became,  according 
to  Stow,  the  residence  of  the  great  navigator  and 
hero,  Sir  Francis  Drake. 

Pursuing  our  route  in  a  westerly  direction  along 
Thames  Street,  on  the  right  hand  is  the  street 
called  Dowgate  Hill,  and  immediately  opposite  it, 
on  the  left,  is  a  small  passage  leading  to  the 
Thames.  This  passage  leads  us  to  the  site  of 
the  ancient  wharf,  or  port,  of  the  Saxons,  called 
Dowgate,  to  which  we  have  already  referred.  But 
the  ground  is  rendered  still  more  interesting,  from 
its  being  the  site  of  the  trajectus,  or  ferry,  —  the 
identical  spot  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames  whence 
the  ferry-boats  of  the  Romans  passed  over  to  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river,  in  connection  with 
the  great  military  way  to  Dover.  Here  also  cen- 
tred, and  branched  off,  the  Roman  military  roads, 


LONDON   AND  ITS    CELEBRITIES.  51 

which  led  to  their  different  stations  throughout 
England. 

Ben  Jonson  speaks  — 

"  Of  Dowgate  torrents  falling  into  Thames ; "  — 

and  Strype,  alluding  to  the  descent  from  Dowgate 
Hill,  informs  us  that,  in  his  time,  "in  great  and 
sudden  rains,  the  water  comes  down  from  other 
streets  with  that  swiftness,  that  it  ofttimes  causeth 
a  flood  in  the  lower  part." 

Close  to  Dowgate  ran,  and  as  a  filthy  sewer  con- 
tinued to  run  till  within  a  few  years,  the  once  clear 
and  rapid  river  of  Walbrook.  How  changed  from 
the  days  when  it  rippled  and  flowed  from  its  source 
in  the  Moorfields,  and  when  it  was  crossed  by 
several  bridges,  which  were  kept  in  repair  by  dif- 
ferent religious  houses,  who  were  only  too  grateful 
for  the  advantages  which  they  derived  from  its 
pure  and  refreshing  waters !  On  the  occasion  of 
the  new  buildings  being  erected  at  the  Bank  in 
1803,  Walbrook  might  be  still  seen  among  the 
foundations,  pursuing  its  trickling  course  toward 
the  Thames. 

A  little  beyond  Dowgate  is  Three  Cranes  Lane, 
leading  to  the  ancient  Three  Cranes  Wharf,  so 
called  from  the  cranes  used  in  landing  wine  and 
heavy  articles  of  merchandise.  It  was  principally 
used  by  the  vintners,  or  wine-merchants,  who 
abounded  in  this  locality,  and  who  obtained  for 
it  the  title  of  the  Vintry. 


52  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

In  Ben  Jonson's  comedy,  "The  Devil  is  an 
Ass"  (Act  i.  sc.  i),  we  find: 

"  Nay,   boy,    I   will   bring    thee   to   the   bawds   and   the 

roysterers, 

At  Billingsgate  feasting  with  claret-wine  and  oysters ; 
From  thence  shoot  the  bridge,  child,  to  the  cranes  in  the 

Vintry, 
And  see  there  the  gimblets,  how  they  make  their  entry." 

Close  by,  on  the  south  side  of  Thames  Street, 
is  the  hall  of  the  Vintners'  Company,  which  stands 
on  the  site  of  a  large  mansion  once  occupied  by 
Sir  John  Stodie,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  in  1357. 
This  company  was  first  incorporated  in  1340, 
under  the  name  of  Wine-tunners.  In  the  court- 
rooms are  portraits  of  Charles  the  Second,  James 
the  Second,  Mary  d'Este,  and  Prince  George  of 
Denmark. 

In  the  Vintry  stood,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  the  magnificent  mansion 
of  Sir  John  Gisors,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and 
constable  of  the  Tower.  Later  in  that  century 
we  find  it  the  residence  of  Sir  Henry  Picard,  vint- 
ner and  lord  mayor,  who  entertained  here,  with 
great  splendour,  no  less  distinguished  personages 
than  his  sovereign,  Edward  the  Third,  John,  King 
of  France,  the  King  of  Cyprus,  David,  King  of 
Scotland,  Edward  the  Black  Prince,  and  a  large 
assemblage  of  the  nobility.  "And  after,"  says 
Stow,  "the  said  Henry  Picard  kept  his  hall 
against  all  comers  whosoever  that  were  willing  to 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  53 

play  at  dice  and  hazard.  In  like  manner  the  Lady 
Margaret,  his  wife,  did  also  keep  her  chamber  to 
the  same  effect."  We  are  told  that  on  this  oc- 
casion, "the  King  of  Cyprus,  playing  with  Sir 
Henry  Picard  in  his  hall,  did  win  of  him  fifty 
marks ;  but  Picard,  being  very  skilful  in  that  art, 
altering  his  hand,  did  after  win  of  the  same  king 
the  same  fifty  marks,  and  fifty  marks  more ;  which 
when  the  same  king  began  to  take  an  ill  part, 
although  he  dissembled  the  same,  Sir  Henry  said 
unto  him,  « My  lord  and  king,  be  not  aggrieved ;  I 
court  not  your  gold,  but  your  play,  for  I  have  not 
bid  you  hither  that  you  might  grieve  ; '  and  giving 
him  his  money  again,  plentifully  bestowed  of  his 
own  amongst  the  retinue.  Besides,  he  gave  many 
rich  gifts  to  the  king,  and  other  nobles  and  knights 
which  dined  with  him,  to  the  great  glory  of  the 
citizens  of  London  in  those  days." 

Worcester  Place,  on  the  west  side  of  Vintners' 
Hall,  points  out  the  site  of  Worcester  Inn,  the 
residence  of  the  learned  and  accomplished  John  de 
Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Worcester,  Chancellor  and  Lord 
Deputy  of  Ireland  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Fourth.  This  remarkable  man  is  said  to  have 
visited  Rome  for  the  express  purpose  of  examining 
the  library  in  the  Vatican,  on  which  occasion  he 
addressed  so  eloquent  an  oration  to  Pope  Pius  the 
Second,  as  to  draw  tears  from  his  Holiness.  Being 
a  stanch  adherent  of  the  house  of  York,  the  tem- 
porary restoration  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  in  1470, 


54  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

placed  his  life  in  great  danger.  Perceiving  that 
his  powerful  enemy,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  was 
determined  on  bringing  him  to  the  block,  he 
sought  for  safety  in  flight,  but  having  been  found 
concealed  in  the  upper  branches  of  a  tree,  he  was 
conveyed  to  London,  and  shortly  afterward  per- 
ished by  the  hands  of  the  executioner  on  Tower 
Hill. 

On  the  north  side  of  Thames  Street,  opposite 
to  Three  Cranes  Lane,  is  College  Hill,  so  called 
from  a  college  dedicated  to  St.  Spirit  and  St.  Mary, 
founded  by  the  celebrated  Sir  Richard  Whitting- 
ton,  three  times  Lord  Mayor  of  London. 

In  a  pasquinade,  preserved  in  the  state  poems, 
entitled  the  "  D.  of  B.'s  [Duke  of  Buckingham's] 
Litany,"  occur  the  following  lines  : 

«'  From  damning  whatever  we  don't  understand, 
From  purchasing  at  Dowgate,  and  selling  in  the  Strand, 
From  calling  streets  by  our  name  when  we've  sold  the  land,1 

Libera  nos,  Domine. 

"  From  borrowing  our  own  house  to  feast  scholars  ill, 
And  then  be  un-chancellored  against  our  will, 
Nought  left  of  a  college  but  College  Hill, 

Libera  nos,"  etc. 

These  verses  allude  to  the  circumstance  of  the 
witty  and  fantastic  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buck- 
alluding  to  George   Street,  Duke  Street,  Villiers  Street, 
Buckingham  Street,  etc.,  erected  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
on  the  site  of  his  former  residence  in  the  Strand. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  55 

ingham,  having  purchased  a  "  large  and  graceful " 
mansion  on  College  Hill,  probably  for  the  purpose 
of  extending  his  influence,  and  spreading  sedition 
among  the  citizens  of  London,  at  the  time  when 
he  was  plotting  against  his  too  easy  and  confiding 
master,  Charles  the  Second.  Lord  Clarendon, 
indeed,  informs  us  that  the  duke  "  had  many  lodg- 
ings in  several  quarters  of  the  city ;  and  though 
his  Majesty  had  frequent  intelligence  where  he 
was,  yet  when  the  sergeant-at-arms,  and  others 
employed  for  his  apprehension,  came  where  he 
was  known  to  have  been  but  an  hour  before,  he  was 
gone  from  thence,  or  so  concealed  that  he  could 
not  be  found." 

St.  Michael's  Paternoster  Royal,  which  church 
stands  on  the  east  side  of  College  Hill,  was  rebuilt 
by  the  executors  of  Whittington,  who  was  buried 
beneath  its  roof  under  a  sumptuous  tomb,  which 
probably  shared  the  fate  of  the  church  in  the  great 
fire  of  1666.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth, 
a  sacrilegious  rector,  one  Thomas  Mountain,  caused 
the  tomb  to  be  broken  open,  being  under  the  im- 
pression that  it  contained  articles  of  considerable 
value.  In  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary  the  body  was 
again  disturbed  for  the  purpose  of  being  rewrapped 
in  a  leaden  sheet,  of  which  it  had  been  despoiled 
in  the  preceding  reign. 

In  St.  Michael's  Church  also  lies  buried  the 
cavalier,  soldier,  and  poet,  John  Cleveland,  of 
whom  Echard  observes  that  he  was  "the  first 


56  LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

poetic  champion "  for  Charles  the  First.  The 
poets  of  the  day,  indeed,  allied  themselves,  almost 
without  an  exception,  to  the  broken  fortunes  of 
their  unfortunate  sovereign.  Having  been  expelled 
by  the  ruling  powers  from  his  fellowship  at  St. 
John's  College,  Cambridge,  for  malignancy,  Cleve- 
land joined  the  king's  camp  at  Oxford,  and  after- 
ward served  in  garrison  at  Ne war k-upon -Trent. 
He  subsequently  fell  into  the  hands  of  Cromwell, 
and  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  remained 
for  a  few  months.  On  his  release  he  took  up  his 
abode  in  Gray's  Inn,  where  Butler,  the  author  of 
"  Hudibras,"  was  his  neighbour  and  chosen  com- 
panion, and  where  they  established  a  nightly  club. 
Cleveland  was  also  the  friend  of  Bishop  Pierson, 
who  preached  a  funeral  sermon  over  his  remains 
in  St.  Michael's  Church.1 

The  body  of  the  present  plain  and  substantial 
edifice  was  completed  in  1694,  after  designs  by 
Sir  Christopher  Wren.  In  this  church  is  Hilton's 
much-admired  picture  of  Mary  Magdalen  anointing 
the  feet  of  Christ ;  but,  with  this  exception,  and 
some  tolerable  oak  carving  on  the  altar-piece  be- 
neath the  picture,  St.  Michael's  contains  but  little 
to  render  it  worthy  of  a  visit. 

St.  Michael's  derives  its  appellation  of  Royal 
from  a  palatial  fortress  called  the  Tower  Royal, 
which  anciently  stood  nearly  on  the  site  of  the 

1  Aubrey  states  that  Cleveland  was  buried  in  St.  Andrew's 
Church,  Holborn.  This  is  a  mistake. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  57 

small  street  which  still  bears  the  name  of  Tower 
Royal.  Here,  according  to  Stow,  resided  more 
than  one  of  our  kings,  among  whom  were  King 
Stephen  and  Richard  the  Second.  In  the  latter 
reign  it  obtained  the  name  of  the  Queen's  Ward- 
robe, probably  from  having  been  the  residence  of 
the  king's  mother,  who  for  some  time  kept  her 
court  here.  It  was  apparently  of  considerable 
strength ;  at  least,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  fact 
of  that  princess  preferring  it  to  the  Tower  as  a 
place  of  security,  and  consequently  taking  refuge 
here  from  the  violence  of  Wat  Tyler  and  his  law- 
less followers.  "King  Richard,"  says  Stow,  "hav- 
ing in  Smithfield  overcome  and  dispersed  his  rebels, 
he,  his  lords,  and  all  his  company,  entered  the  city 
of  London  with  great  joy,  and  went  to  the  lady 
princess,  his  mother,  who  was  then  lodged  in  the 
Tower  Royal,  called  the  Queen's  Wardrobe,  where 
she  had  remained  three  days  and  two  nights,  right 
sore  abashed  ;  but  when  she  saw  the  king,  her  son, 
she  was  greatly  rejoiced,  and  said,  'Ah,  son,  what 
great  sorrow  have  I  suffered  for  you  this  day ! ' 
The  king  answered  and  said,  '  Certainly,  madam, 
I  know  it  well ;  but  now  rejoice,  and  thank  God, 
for  I  have  this  day  recovered  mine  heritage,  and 
the  realm  of  England,  which  I  had  near  hand 
lost.' "  Shortly  afterward  we  find  the  Tower 
Royal  set  apart  by  King  Richard  as  the  residence 
of  Leon  the  Third,  King  of  Armenia,  when  he 
sought  an  asylum  in  England,  after  having  been 


$8  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

expelled  from  his  kingdom  by  the  Turks.  The 
last  notice  which  we  discover  of  the  Tower  Royal 
is  in  the  reign  of  Richard  the  Third,  when  it  was 
granted  to  John,  first  Duke  of  Norfolk,  who  made 
it  his  residence  till  the  period  of  his  death  on  the 
memorable  field  of  Bosworth,  in  August,  1485. 

Within  a  short  distance  from  the  Tower  Royal 
is  Garlick  Hill,  on  the  east  side  of  which  stands 
the  parish  church  of  St.  James's  Garlick  Hythe, 
so  called  from  its  vicinity  to  a  garlic-market,  which 
was  anciently  held  in  the  neighbourhood.  This  is 
another  of 'Sir  Christopher  Wren's  edifices,  and  is 
entirely  devoid  of  architectural  merit.  The  date 
of  the  foundation  of  the  old  edifice  is  lost  in 
antiquity.  We  only  know  that  it  was  rebuilt  by 
Richard  Rothing,  Sheriff  of  London,  in  1326  ;  that 
it  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1666,  and  again  rebuilt 
between  the  years  1676  and  1682.  Anciently 
this  church  appears  to  have  been  often  selected 
for  the  burial  of  the  lord  mayors  of  London. 
Here  were  interred  John  of  Oxenford,  vintner 
and  lord  mayor  in  1341  ;  Sir  John  Wrotch,  lord 
mayor  in  1360  ;  William  Venour,  in  1389  ;  William 
More,  in  1395  ;  Robert  Chichley,  in  1421  ;  and  Sir 
James  Spencer,  in  1527.  Among  other  persons 
who  were  interred  in  the  old  church,  and  whose 
monuments  were  destroyed  by  the  fire  of  London, 
was  Richard  Lions,  a  wine-merchant  and  lapidary, 
who  was  beheaded  by  Wat  Tyler  and  the  rebels 
in  Cheapside  in  the  reign  of  Richard  the  Second. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  59 

Here  too  were  monuments  to  more  than  one  of 
the  great  family  of  the  Stanleys,  whose  residence, 
Derby  House,  afterward  converted  into  Herald's 
College,  stood  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood. 

In  the  Spectator  (No.  147)  there  is  an  interest- 
ing notice  of  St.  James's  Garlick  Hythe.  Addi- 
son,  speaking  of  the  beautiful  service  of  the  Church 
of  England,  remarks,  "  Until  Sunday  was  se'n- 
night,  I  never  discovered,  to  so  great  a  degree,  the 
excellency  of  the  Common  Prayer.  Being  at  St. 
James's  Garlick  Hill  Church,  I  heard  the  service 
read  so  distinctly,  so  emphatically,  and  so  fer- 
vently, that  it  was  next  to  an  impossibility  to  be 
unattentive.  My  eyes  and  my  thoughts  could  not 
wander  as  usual,  but  were  confined  to  my  prayers. 
.  .  .  The  Confession  was  read  with  such  a  resigned 
humility ;  the  Absolution  with  such  a  comfortable 
authority  ;  the  Thanksgivings  with  such  a  religious 
joy,  as  made  me  feel  those  affections  of  the  mind 
in  a  manner  I  never  did  before."  The  rector  of 
the  parish  at  this  period  was  the  Rev.  Philip 
Stubbs,  afterward  Archdeacon  of  St.  Albans, 
whose  fine  voice  and  impressive  delivery  are  said 
to  have  been  long  remembered  by  his  old  parish- 
ioners. 


CHAPTER   III. 

QUEENHITHE,  BAYNARD's    CASTLE,    HOUSES    OF   THE 
NOBILITY,    BLACKFRIARS,    ETC. 

Derivation  of  the  Name  of  Queenhithe  —  Celebrated  Residents 
in  Baynard's  Castle  —  Mansions  near  Paul's  Wharf  —  Mon- 
astery of  the  Black  Friars  —  Repudiation  of  Queen  Cath- 
erine—  Queen  Elizabeth  at  Cobham  House  —  The  Fatal 
Vespers  —  Blackf riar's  Bridge  —  Fleet  Ditch  —  Strongholds 
of  Thieves  —  Palace  of  Bridewell  —  Alsatia  —  Execution  of 
Lord  Sanquhar. 

CONTINUING  our  route  along  Thames  Street,  we 
shall  point  out,  as  we  pass  along,  the  particular  sites 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  which  are  associated 
either  with  the  history,  the  manners,  or  the  ro- 
mance of  past  times.  We  have  hitherto  strolled 
from  Billingsgate  as  far  as  Queenhithe ;  we  will 
now  continue  from  Queenhithe  to  the  Temple 
Garden. 

Queenhithe,  Queenhive,  or  Queen's  Harbour,  — 
on  the  west  side  of  Southwark  Bridge,  —  was  an- 
ciently called  Edred's  Hythe ;  and,  as  far  back  as 
the  days  of  the  Saxons,  was  one  of  the  principal 
harbours  or  quays  where  foreign  vessels  discharged 
their  cargoes.  According  to  Stow,  it  derived  its 
more  ancient  name  of  Edred's  Hythe  from  one 

60 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  61 

Edred,  who  had  been  a  proprietor  of  the  wharf. 
We  have  evidence  that  it  was  royal  property  in 
the  reign  of  King  Stephen ;  that  monarch  having 
bestowed  it  upon  William  de  Ypres,  who,  in  his 
turn,  conferred  it  on  the  Convent  of  the  Holy 
Trinity  within  Aldgate.  In  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Third  it  again  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
Crown.  In  consequence  of  the  harbour-dues  being 
the  perquisite  of  the  Queen  of  England,  it  obtained 
particular  favour ;  foreign  ships,  and  especially  ves- 
sels which  brought  corn  from  the  Cinque  Ports, 
being  compelled  to  land  their  cargoes  here.  From 
its  connection  also  with  the  Queen  of  England  it 
obtained  its  name  of  Ripa  Regince,  or  Queen's 
Hythe.  For  centuries  it  maintained  a  successful 
rivalry  with  Billingsgate.  From  Fabian,  however, 
who  wrote  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  we 
learn  that  in  his  time  the  harbour-dues  of  Queen- 
hithe  had  so  fallen  off  as  to  be  worth  only  ^15  a 
year.  A  century  afterward,  Stow  speaks  of  it  as 
being  almost  forsaken. 

Opposite  to  Queenhithe,  on  the  north  side  of 
Thames  Street,  is  situated  the  parish  church  of 
St.  Michael,  Queenhithe,  an  edifice  erected  by 
Sir  Christopher  Wren  on  the  site  of  a  very  an- 
cient church  destroyed  by  the  fire  of  London.  In 
1181  we  find  it  denominated  St.  Michael  de 
Cornhithe,  Queenhithe  being  probably  occasion- 
ally styled  Cornhithe  from  the  quantity  of  corn 
which  was  landed  there  from  the  Cinque  Ports. 


62  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

The  church  contains  no  monuments  of  any  inter- 
est ;  nor,  with  the  exception  of  its  small  but  elegant 
spire,  and  some  fine  carved  fruit  and  flowers  on 
the  doorway  next  to  the  pulpit,  has  it  much  artis- 
tical  merit. 

A  little  beyond  Queenhithe  is  Paul's  Wharf, 
which  derives  its  name  from  its  vicinity  to  the 
great  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's. 

Close  to  this  spot  stood  the  mansion  occupied 
by  Cicely,  youngest  daughter  of  the  haughty  and 
powerful  baron,  Ralph  de  Neville,  first  Earl  of 
Westmoreland,  and  widow  of  Richard  Plantagenet, 
Duke  of  York,  in  whose  ambition  originated  the 
devastating  wars  between  the  White  and  Red 
Roses.  She  was  the  mother  of  a  numerous  fam- 
ily, of  whom  seven  survived  to  figure  prominently 
in  the  stirring  times  in  which  they  lived.  When 
this  lady  —  the  granddaughter  of  John  of  Gaunt 
—  sat  in  her  domestic  circle,  watching  compla- 
cently the  childish  sports,  and  listening  to  the 
joyous  laughter  of  her  young  progeny,  how  little 
could  she  have  anticipated  the  strange  fate  which 
awaited  them  !  Her  husband  perished  on  the 
bloody  field  of  Wakefield ;  her  first-born,  after- 
ward Edward  the  Fourth,  followed  in  the  ambi- 
tious footsteps  of  his  father,  and  waded  through 
bloodshed  to  a  throne ;  her  second  son,  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Rutland,  perished  at  the  battle  of  Wake- 
field  ;  the  third  son,  "  false,  fleeting,  perjured  Clar- 
ence," died  in  the  dungeons  of  the  Tower ;  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  63 

her  youngest  son,  Richard,  succeeded  to  a  throne 
and  a  bloody  death.  The  career  of  her  daughters 
was  also  remarkable.  Anne,  her  eldest  daughter, 
married  Henry  Holland,  Duke  of  Exeter,  whose 
splendid  fortunes  and  mysterious  fate  are  so  well 
known.  Elizabeth,  the  second  daughter,  became 
the  wife  of  John  de  la  Pole,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and 
lived  to  see  her  son,  the  second  duke,  decapitated 
on  Tower  Hill  for  his  attachment  to  the  house  of 
York.  Lastly,  her  third  daughter,  Margaret,  mar- 
ried Charles,  Duke  of  Burgundy.  This  lady's 
persevering  hostility  to  Henry  the  Seventh,  and 
open  support  of  the  claims  of  Perkin  Warbeck, 
believing  him  to  be  the  last  male  heir  of  the 
house  of  Plantagenet,  have  rendered  her  name 
conspicuous  in  history. 

Between  Paul's  Wharf  and  Puddle  Dock,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  great  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's, 
stood  anciently,  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  Bay- 
nard's  Castle,  endeared  to  us  by  the  magic  genius 
of  Shakespeare,  and  associated  with  some  of  the 
most  stirring  scenes  in  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try. Baynard's  Castle  derives  its  name  from  its 
founder,  one  of  the  Norman  barons  who  accom- 
panied William  the  Conqueror  to  England,  and  by 
one  of  whose  descendants,  William  Baynard,  it  was 
forfeited  in  1 1 1 1 .  Henry  the  First  bestowed  it  on 
Robert  Fitzwalter,  fifth  son  of  Richard,  Earl  of 
Clare,  in  whose  family  the  office  of  castellan  and 
standard-bearer  to  the  city  of  London  became 


64  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

hereditary.  His  immediate  descendant  was  Robert 
Fitzwalter,  whose  daughter,  the  beautiful  Matilda, 
King  John  attempted  to  corrupt.  Fitzwalter,  to 
avenge  the  affront  offered  to  his  race,  subse- 
quently acted  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  wars  waged 
against  the  king  by  his  barons.  "The  primary 
occasion  of  these  discontents,"  writes  Dugdale, 
"  is  by  some  thus  reported :  that  this  Robert 
Fitzwalter,  having  a  very  beautiful  daughter, 
called  Maude,  residing  at  Dunmow,  the  king  fre- 
quently solicited  her  chastity,  but,  never  prevailing, 
grew  so  enraged  that  he  caused  her  to  be  privately 
poisoned ;  and  that  she  was  buried  at  the  south 
side  of  the  choir  at  Dunmow  [in  Essex],  between 
two  pillars  there."  To  punish  the  rebellion  of 
Fitzwalter,  the  king  caused  "his  house,  called 
Baynard's  Castle,  in  the  city  of  London,"  to  ^be 
razed  to  the  ground.  Fitzwalter,  however,  is  said 
to  have  subsequently  made  his  peace  with  King 
John,  by  the  extraordinary  valour  which  he  dis- 
played at  a  tournament  in  the  presence  of  the 
King  of  France.  King  John,  struck  with  admira- 
tion at  his  prowess,  is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  "  By 
God's  tooth,  he  deserves  to  be  a  king  who  hath 
such  a  soldier  in  his  train."  Ascertaining  the 
name  of  the  chivalrous  knight,  —  for  his  features 
were  concealed  by  his  closed  vizor,  —  the  king 
immediately  sent  for  him,  restored  him  to  his 
barony,  and  subsequently  gave  him  permission  to 
repair  his  castle  of  Baynard. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  65 

Baynard's  Castle  was  almost  entirely  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1428,  shortly  after  which  period  it  was 
rebuilt  by  Humphrey  Plantagenet,  Duke  of  Glou- 
cester, on  whose  attainder  it  again  reverted  to  the 
Crown.  The  next  occupant  was  Richard  Plantag- 
enet, Duke  of  York,  who  maintained  no  fewer  than 
four  hundred  followers  within  its  walls,  and  who 
carried  on  here  his  ambitious  projects  against  the 
government  of  Henry  the  Sixth.  After  his  death 
at  the  battle  of  Wakefield,  Baynard's  Castle  de- 
scended by  inheritance  to  his  gallant  son,  the  Earl 
of  March,  afterward  Edward  the  Fourth.  When, 
in  1640,  the  young  prince  entered  London  with  the 
kingmaker,  Warwick,  we  find  him  taking  up  his 
abode  in  his  paternal  mansion,  and  it  was  within 
its  princely  hall  that  he  assumed  the  title  of  king, 
and  summoned  the  bishops,  peers,  and  magistrates 
in  and  about  London  to  attend  him  in  council. 

In  the  garden  of  Baynard's  Castle,  Shakespeare 
places  the  secret  interview  between  the  Duke  of 
York  and  the  Earls  of  Salisbury  and  Warwick,  in 
which  the  two  latter  acknowledged  him  as  their 
rightful  sovereign,  and  came  to  the  determination 
to  appeal  to  arms  to  enforce  his  claims  : 

'•  York.     Now,  my  good  lords  of  Salisbury  and  Warwick, 
Our  simple  supper  ended,  give  me  leave, 
In  this  close  walk  to  satisfy  myself, 
In  craving  your  opinion  of  my  title, 
Which  is  infallible,  to  England's  crown. 


66  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

War.     What  plain  proceeding  is  more  plain  than  this? 
Henry  doth  claim  the  crown  from  John  of  Gaunt, 
The  fourth  son ;  York  claims  it  from  the  third. 
Till  Lionel's  issue  fails,  his  should  not  reign : 
It  fails  not  yet ;  but  flourishes  in  thee 
And  in  thy  sons,  fair  slips  of  such  a  stock. 
Then,  father  Salisbury,  kneel  we  together; 
And  in  this  private  plot  be  we  the  first 
That  shall  salute  our  rightful  sovereign 
With  honour  of  his  birthright  to  the  crown." 

—  King  Henry  VI.  Part  II.,  Act  ii.  Sc.  2. 

Shortly  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  Edward 
the  Fourth  appears  to  have  conferred  Baynard's 
Castle  upon  his  widowed  mother,  Cicely  Neville, 
Duchess  of  York.  Hither,  for  security,  he  brought 
his  wife  and  children  from  their  prison-sanctuary 
at  Westminster  in  April,  1471.  Here  he  slept 
that  night,  and.  the  next  day  kept  Good  Friday 
with  proper  solemnity.  Two  days  afterward,  on 
Easter  Sunday,  he  defeated  Warwick  at  the  battle 
of  Barnet.  Here,  under  his  mother's  roof,  Rich- 
ard, Duke  of  Gloucester  held  his  councils  in  the 
interval  between  his  brother's  death  and  his  own 
usurpation  of  the  supreme  authority,  and  here  he 
was  waited  upon  by  his  creature,  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  and  the  citizens,  who  vociferously 
called  upon  him  to  assume  the  crown.  Shake- 
speare has  again  thrown  an  undying  interest  over 
the  site  of  Baynard's  Castle.  Richard,  with  great 
apparent  reluctance,  presents  himself  at  a  gallery 
above,  supported  by  a  bishop  on  each  side  of  him  i 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  67 

"  Glou.     Alas !  why  would  you  heap  this  care  on  me  ? 
I  am  unfit  for  state  and  majesty  ; 
I  do  beseech  you,  take  it  not  amiss ; 
I  cannot  nor  I  will  not  yield  to  you. 

Buck.     If  you  refuse  it,  —  as  in  love  and  zeal, 
Loth  to  depose  the  child,  your  brother's  son ; 
As  well  we  know  your  tenderness  of  heart 
And  gentle,  kind,  effeminate  remorse, 
Which  we  have  noted  in  you  to  your  kindred, 
And  equally,  indeed,  to  all  estates,  — 
Yet  know,  whe'r  you  accept  our  suit  or  no, 
Your  brother's  son  shall  never  reign  our  king ; 
But  we  will  plant  some  other  in  the  throne, 
To  the  disgrace  and  downfall  of  your  house : 
And  in  this  resolution  here  we  leave  you.  — 
Come,  citizens,  we  will  entreat  no  more. 

[Exeunt  Buckingham  and  Citizens. 

Catesby.     Call  them  again,  sweet  prince;    accept  their 

suit; 
If  you  deny  them,  all  the  land  will  rue  it. 

Glou.     Will  you  enforce  me  to  a  world  of  cares  ? 
Call  them  again.     I  am  not  made  of  stone, 
But  penetrable  to  your  kind  entreaties.  \_Exit  Catesby. 

Albeit  against  my  conscience  and  my  soul. 

[Re-enter  Buckingham  and  the  rest. 
Cousin  of  Buckingham,  and  sage  grave  men, 
Since  you  will  buckle  fortune  on  my  back, 
To  bear  the  burthen,  whether  I  will  or  no, 
I  must  have  patience  to  endure  the  load : 
And  if  black  scandal  or  foul-fac'd  reproach 
Attend  the  sequel  of  your  imposition, 
Your  mere  enforcement  shall  acquittance  me 
From  all  the  impure  blots  and  stains  thereof ; 
For  God  doth  know,  and  you  may  partly  see, 
How  far  I  am  from  that  desire. 


68  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

Mayor.     God  bless  your  grace !  we  see  it,  and  will  say 

it. 

Glou.     In  saying  so  you  shall  but  say  the  truth. 
Buck.     Then  I  salute  you  with  this  royal  title,  — 
Long  live  King  Richard,  England's  worthy  king  !  " 

—  King  Richard  III.,  Act  iii.  Sc.  7. 

It  was  in  the  "  high  chamber  next  the  chapel, 
in  the  dwelling  of  Cicely,  Duchess  of  York,  called 
Baynard's  Castle,  Thames  Street,"  that,  on  the 
day  of  Richard's  coronation,  the  Great  Seal  was 
surrendered  into  his  hands. 

Henry  the  Seventh  frequently  resided  in  Bay- 
nard's Castle  after  his  accession  to  the  throne ; 
indeed,  he  would  seem  to  have  been  extremely 
partial  to  the  spot,  inasmuch  as  we  find  him,  in 
1 501,  almost  entirely  rebuilding  it ;  "  not  embattled, 
nor  so  strongly  fortified,  castle-like,  but  far  more 
beautiful  and  commodious,  for  the  entertainment 
of  any  prince  or  great  estate."  Here  he  received 
the  ambassadors  from  the  King  of  the  Romans, 
and  here  he  lodged  Philip  of  Austria  during  his 
visit  to  this  country. 

Shortly  after  the  marriage  of  Prince  Henry, 
afterward  Henry  the  Eighth,  with  Catherine  of 
Aragon,  we  find  them  conducted  by  water  in  great 
state  from  Baynard's  Castle  to  the  royal  palace 
at  Westminster.  "The  Mayor  and  Commonalty 
of  London,"  says  Hall,  "in  barges  garnished  with 
standards,  streamers,  and  pennons  of  their  device, 
gave  them  their  attendance ;  and  there,  in  the 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  69 

palace,  were  such  martial  feats,  such  valiant  jousts, 
such  vigorous  tourneys,  such  fierce  fight  at  the 
barriers,  as  before  that  time  was  of  no  man  had 
in  remembrance.  Of  this  royal  triumph,  Lord 
Edward,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  was  chief  chal- 
lenger, and  Lord  Thomas  Grey,  Marquis  of  Dorset, 
was  chief  defender ;  which,  with  their  aids  and 
companions,  bare  themselves  so  valiantly,  that  they 
obtained  great  laud  and  honour." 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  Baynard's 
Castle  became  the  residence  of  Sir  William  Syd- 
ney, chamberlain  to  the  youthful  monarch.  In 
the  same  reign  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  William 
Herbert,  first  Earl  of  Pembroke,  who  lived  here  in 
a  style  of  extraordinary  magnificence,  and  whose 
countess,  Anne,  sister  of  Queen  Catherine  Parr, 
breathed  her  last  here  in  1551.  At  Baynard's 
Castle  her  lord  was  residing  at  the  time  of  King 
Edward's  death,  on  which  occasion,  notwithstand- 
ing the  proverbial  wariness  of  his  character,  he 
was  induced  to  sign  the  famous  document  ac- 
knowledging the  claims  of  Lady  Jane  Grey.  He 
soon,  however,  repented  of  the  step  which  he  had 
taken,  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  leave  the  beau- 
tiful and  accomplished  maiden  to  her  melancholy 
fate,  and  to  proclaim  his  legitimate  sovereign, 
Queen  Mary.  Active  in  his  loyalty,  as  he  had 
been  in  his  treason,  he  assembled  the  partisans 
of  royalty  under  his  roof  in  Baynard's  Castle, 
and  it  was  from  under  its  portal  that  they  sallied 


70  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

forth  to  proclaim  the  title  of  Queen  Mary  to  the 
throne. 

The  earl  figured  in  all  the  court  pageants  of 
the  time.  He  was  selected  to  wait  on  King  Philip 
on  his  landing  at  Portsmouth ;  was  present  at  his 
marriage  with  Queen  Mary  at  Winchester,  in  1564, 
and  three  months  afterward,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  assembling  of  the  first  Parliament  under  the 
new  king  and  queen,  he  proceeded,  on  entering 
London,  to  his  mansion  of  Baynard's  Castle,  fol- 
lowed by  "a  retinue  of  two  thousand  horsemen 
in  velvet  coats,  with  three  laces  of  gold  and  gold 
chains,  besides  sixty  gentlemen  in  blue  coats,  with 
his  badge  of  the  green  dragon."  The  earl  survived 
to  figure  at  the  coronation  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
who  appointed  him  her  master  of  the  horse,  and 
on  one  occasion  did  him  the  honour  to  sup  with 
him  at  Baynard's  Castle.  At  ten  o'clock  at  night, 
after  [having  partaken  of  a  sumptuous  entertain- 
ment, he  handed  his  royal  mistress  by  torchlight 
to  the  riverside,  where  she  entered  her  state  barge 
to  the  sound  of  music,  and  amidst  the  blaze  of 
fireworks ;  and  thus  returned  to  Whitehall,  sur- 
rounded by  a  swarm  of  attendant  boats,  and 
cheered  by  the  acclamations  of  the  loyal  citizens 
of  London. 

The  successor  of  Earl  William  in  the  occupancy 
of  Baynard's  Castle  was  his  son  Henry,  the  sec- 
ond earl,  who  resided  here  with  his  countess,— 
"  Sydney's    sister,    Pembroke's    mother."      Here 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  71 

also  resided  their  accomplished  and  high-minded 
son,  William,  the  third  earl,  who  united  wit  and 
gallantry  with  integrity  and  the  most  refined  taste, 
the  most  courtly  breeding  with  the  kindest  nature. 
The  death  of  Earl  William  took  place  in  Baynard's 
Castle,  on  the  loth  of  April,  1630,  and  was  at- 
tended by  some  rather  remarkable  circumstances. 
It  had  been  foretold  by  his  tutor,  Sandford,  and 
also  by  the  mad  prophetess,  Lady  Davies,  whose 
predictions  caused  Archbishop  Laud  so  much  dis- 
comfort, that  he  either  would  not  complete,  or 
would  die  on  the  anniversary  of,  his  fiftieth  birth- 
day. That  these  predictions  were  actually  fulfilled 
appears  by  the  following  curious  passage  in  Lord 
Clarendon's  "  History  of  the  Rebellion."  "  A 
short  story  may  not  be  unfitly  inserted ;  it  being 
frequently  mentioned  by  a  person  of  known  integ- 
rity, who,  at  that  time,  being  on  his  way  to  Lon- 
don, met  at  Maidenhead  some  persons  of  quality, 
—  ofVelation  or  dependence  upon  the  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke. At  supper  one  of  them  drank  a  health 
to  the  lord  steward ;.  upon  which  another  of  them 
said  that  he  believed  his  lord  was  at  that  time 
very  merry,  for  he  had  now  outlived  the  day  which 
his  tutor  Sandford  had  prognosticated  upon  his 
nativity  that  he  would  not  outlive ;  but  he  had 
done  it  now,  for  that  was  his  birthday,  which  had 
completed  his  age  to  fifty  years.  The  next  morn- 
ing, by  the  time  they  came  to  Colebrook,  they 
met  with  the  news  of  his  death."  The  earl,  it 


72  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

appears,  had  engaged  himself  to  sup  with  the 
Countess  of  Bedford,  at  whose  table,  on  the  fatal 
day,  he  not  only  appeared  to  be  in  excellent  health 
and  spirits,  but  remarked  that  he  would  never 
again  trust  a  woman's  prophecy.  A  few  hours 
afterward  he  was  attacked  by  apoplexy,  and  died 
during  the  night.  Granger,  to  make  the  story 
more  remarkable,  relates  that  when  the  earl's  body 
was  opened,  in  order  to  be  embalmed,  the  first 
incision  was  no  sooner  made,  than  the  corpse 
lifted  up  its  hand,  to  the  great  terror  of  those 
who  witnessed  the  phenomenon. 

The  last  of  our  sovereigns  whose  name  is 
associated  with  Baynard's  Castle  was  Charles  the 
Second,  in  whose  company  we  find  the  first  Earl 
of  Sandwich  supping  here  on  the  iQth  of  June,  1660. 
"  My  lord,"  writes  Pepys,  on  that  day,  "  went  at 
night  with  the  king  to  Baynard's  Castle  to  sup- 
per ; "  and  again,  on  the  following  day,  Pepys 
writes :  "  With  my  lord,  who  lay  long  in  bed  this 
day,  because  he  came  home  late  from  supper  with 
the  king." 

Baynard's  Castle  was  destroyed  in  the  great 
fire.  Its  name,  however,  is  still  preserved  in  Bay- 
nard  Castle  Ward. 

Westward  of  the  site  of  Baynard's  Castle  is 
Puddle  Dock,  which  doubtless  derives  its  name 
from  one  "  Puddle,"  whom  Stow  incidentally  men- 
tions as  having  kept  a  wharf  in  this  neighbour- 
hood. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES  73 

»  Puddle  Wharf, 

Which  place  we'll  make  bold  with  to  call  it  our  Abydos, 
As  the  Bankside  is  our  Sestos." 

—  Ben  J onsen's  Bartholomew  Fair. 

The  spot  is  interesting  as  pointing  out  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  house  purchased  by  Shake- 
speare, and  bequeathed  by  him  by  will  to  his 
daughter,  Susannah  Hall.  The  Conveyance  de- 
scribes it  as  "abutting  upon  a  streete  leading 
down  to  Puddle  Wharffe  on  the  east  part,  right 
against  the  King's  Maiestie's  Wardrobe ; "  being 
"  now  or  late  in  the  tenure  or  occupacon  of  one 
William  Ireland."  To  Mr.  Cunningham  we  are 
indebted  for  pointing  out  the  circumstance  that 
"there  is  still  an  Ireland  Yard."  Shakespeare, 
in  his  will,  describes  the  house  as  "situat  lying 
and  being  in  the  Blackfriers  in  London,  nere  the 
Wardrobe."  Ireland  Yard  is  on  the  west  side  of 
St.  Andrew's  Hill,  and  Wardrobe  Place  points  out 
the  site  of  the  Wardrobe  here  referred  to. 

To  the  westward  of  Baynard's  Castle  stood 
the  Castle  of  Montfichet,  founded  by  Gilbert  de 
Montfichet,  or  Montifiquit,  a  relative  of  William 
the  Conqueror,  whom  he  accompanied  to  England, 
and  with  whom  he  fought  side  by  side  at  the 
battle  of  Hastings.  It  was  demolished  by  order 
of  King  John  in  1213,  and  its  materials  appro- 
priated to  the  erection  of  the  neighbouring  monas- 
tery of  the  Black  Friars.  Close  by,  nearly  on  the 
site  of  the  present  Puddle  Dock,  stood  the  ancient 


74  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

residence  of  the  Lords  Berkeley,  and  afterward, 
temporarily,  of  the  great  kingmaker,  the  Earl  of 
Warwick. 

In  the  days  of  the  Plantagenets,  —  when  the 
sovereigns  of  England  held  their  court  indiscrimi- 
nately in  the  palaces  of  Bridewell,  Westminster,  and 
the  Tower,  —  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  between 
the  latter  fortress  and  the  Temple,  appear  to  have 
been  principally  occupied  by  the  splendid  mansions 
and  gardens  of  the  nobility.  But  by  the  time  that 
Elizabeth  ascended  the  throne,  and  when  Whitehall 
had  become  the  fixed  residence  of  the  court,  the 
tide  of  fashion  began  to  flow  in  a  more  westwardly 
direction,  when  there  arose  those  splendid  water- 
palaces  between  the  Temple  and  Whitehall,  which 
have  given  names  to  so  many  of  the  streets  in  the 
Strand.  In  addition  to  the  mansions  we  have 
already  recorded  as  having  stood  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  Paul's  Wharf,  may  be  mentioned  the 
messuage  of  the  Abbots  of  Fescamp,  in  Normandy, 
situated  between  the  wharf  and  Baynard's  Castle, 
Scrope's  Inn,  the  abode  of  the  powerful  family 
of  the  Scropes  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Sixth, 
and  Beaumont  Inn,  the  residence  of  the  noble 
family  of  the  Beaumonts  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Third,  and  afterward  of  Lord  Hastings,  the 
ill-fated  favourite  of  Edward  the  Fourth.  From 
Lord  Hastings,  Beaumont  Inn  passed  into  the 
possession  of  his  descendants,  the  Earls  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, whose  town  residence  it  was  in  the  reign 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  75 

of  Henry  the  Eighth,  from  which  time  its  name 
changed  to  Huntingdon  House. 

Immediately  to  the  east  of  Blackfriars  Bridge 
stood  the  great  monastery  of  the  Black  Friars,  who 
removed  from  Holborn  to  this  spot  in  the  year 
1276.  This  house,  which,  with  its  gardens  and 
precincts,  covered  a  vast  space  of  ground,  had 
its  four  gates  and  its  sanctuary,  and  could  also 
boast  of  one  of  the  most  magnificent  churches  in 
the  metropolis.  Several  Parliaments  were  held  in 
the  monastery  of  the  Black  Friars  in  the  reigns  of 
Henry  the  Sixth  and  Henry  the  Eighth ;  one  of 
the  last  and  most  remarkable  having  been  that 
which  voted  the  charges  against  Wolsey,  and 
prayed  for  the  condign  punishment  of  the  cardinal. 

In  ancient  times,  the  splendid  church  of  the 
Black  Friars  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  chief 
burial-places  of  the  great.  Among  other  illustri- 
ous persons  whose  names  bear  our  imaginations 
back  to  the  ages  of  chivalry,  here  reposed  the 
ashes  of  the  great  Justiciary  of  England,  Hubert 
de  Burgh,  Earl  of  Kent,  and  of  his  wife,  Margaret, 
daughter  of  William,  King  of  Scotland.  Here  were 
preserved  the  heart  of  Eleanor  of  Castile,  the 
beautiful  and  devoted  queen  of  Edward  the  First, 
and  that  of  her  son  Alphonso  ;  the  remains  of  John 
of  Eltham,  Duke  of  Cornwall,  brother  of  Edward 
the  Third  ;  of  the  accomplished  and  ill-fated  John 
Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Worcester,  beheaded  in  1470 ; 
of  James  Touchet,  Earl  of  Audley,  beheaded  in 


76  LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

1497;  of  Sir  Thomas  Brandon,  Knight  of  the 
Garter,  uncle  of  the  high-bred  and  chivalrous 
Charles  Brandon,  Duke  of  Suffolk ;  of  William 
Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devonshire;  of  Sir  Thomas 
Parr  and  his  wife,  the  parents  of  Queen  Catherine 
Parr,  besides  numerous  other  persons  of  high  birth 
and  princely  fortunes. 

The  monastery  of  the  Black  Friars  is  associated 
with  one  of  the  most  interesting  domestic  events 
in  the  history  of  our  country  —  the  repudiation  by 
Henry  the  Eighth  of  Catherine  of  Aragon,  that 
virtuous  and  pure-minded  woman  who  had  loved 
him  through  good  repute  and  ill  repute ;  the  only 
being,  perhaps,  in  his  dominions  who  was  attached 
to  him  from  purely  disinterested  motives,  — 

"  That,  like  a  jewel,  has  hung  twenty  years 
About  his  neck,  yet  never  lost  her  lustre ; 
Of  her  that  loves  him  with  that  excellence, 
That  angels  love  good  men  with." 

—  King  Henry  VIII.,  Act  ii.  Sc.  2. 

The  legates  nominated  by  the  pope  to  decide  on 
the  legality  of  Henry's  marriage  were  Cardinals 
Campeggio  and  Wolsey,  who  opened  their  court 
with  great  state  and  ceremony  in  the  hall  of  the 
Black  Friars,  on  the  3ist  of  May,  1529.  King 
Henry  and  his  consort  were  both  present ;  the 
king  taking  his  seat  on  the  right  of  the  legates, 
and  the  queen,  attended  by  four  bishops,  on  their 
left.  Their  names  having  been  called  by  the  usual 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  77 

formalities,  Henry  answered  to  his,  but  Catherine 
remained  silent.  Having  again,  however,  been  cited 
to  answer  to  her  name,  she  suddenly  rose  from  her 
seat,  and  throwing  herself  at  the  king's  feet,  im- 
plored him,  in  language  equally  dignified  and  touch- 
ing, to  remember  that  she  was  the  wife  of  his 
choice,  —  a  friendless  stranger  in  a  foreign  land. 
"  Sir,"  she  exclaimed,  with  pathetic  eloquence, 
"I  beseech  you,  for  all  the  love  that  hath  been 
between  us,  and  for  the  love  of  God,  let  me  have 
justice  and  right ;  take  of  me  some  pity  and  com- 
passion, for  I  am  a  poor  woman  and  a  stranger, 
born  out  of  your  dominions.  I  have  here  no 
assured  friend,  much  less  impartial  counsel ;  and 
I  flee  to  you  as  to  the  head  of  justice  within  this 
realm.  Alas !  Sir,  wherein  have  I  offended  you,  or 
on  what  occasion  given  you  displeasure  ?  Have  I 
ever  designed  against  your  will  and  pleasure,  that 
you  should  put  me  from  you  ?  I  take  God  and  all 
the  world  to  witness,  that  I  have  been  to  you  a 
true,  humble,  and  obedient  wife,  ever  conformable 
to  your  will  and  pleasure." 

"  Alas !  sir, 

In  what  have  I  offended  you  ?  what  cause 
Hath  my  behaviour  given  to  your  displeasure, 
That  thus  you  should  proceed  to  put  me  off, 
And  take  your  grace  from  me  ?     Heaven  witness 
I  have  been  to  you  a  true  and  humble  wife, 
At  all  times  to  your  will  conformable ; 
Ever  in  fear  to  kindle  your  dislike, 
Yea,  subject  to  your  countenance,  glad  or  sorry 


78  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

As  I  saw  it  inclined  :  when  was  the  hour 

I  ever  contradicted  your  desire, 

Or  made  it  not  mine  too  ?     Or  which  of  your  friends 

Have  I  not  strove  to  love,  although  I  knew 

He  were  mine  enemy  ?  what  friend  of  mine 

That  had  to  him  derived  your  anger,  did  I 

Continue  in  my  liking  ?  nay,  gave  notice 

He  was  from  thence  discharged  ?     Sir,  call  to  mind 

That  I  have  been  your  wife,  in  this  obedience, 

Upward  of  twenty  years,  and  have  been  blest 

With  many  children  by  you ;  if,  in  the  course 

And  process  of  this  time,  you  can  report, 

And  prove  it  too,  against  mine  honour  aught, 

My  bond  to  wedlock,  or  my  love  and  duty, 

Against  your  sacred  person,  in  God's  name, 

Turn  me  away ;  and  let  the  foul'st  contempt 

Shut  door  upon  me,  and  so  give  me  up 

To  the  sharp'st  kind  of  justice." 

—  King  Henry  VIII.,  Act  ii.  Sc.  4. 

The  decree  of  divorce  was  passed  in  1533.  The 
unfortunate  queen  retired  to  Kimbolton,  where 
she  died  of  a  broken  heart  on  the  8th  of  January, 
1536;  insisting  to  the  last  on  retaining  her  title 
of  queen,  and  denouncing  the  edict  which  sought 
to  render  her  name  a  tainted  one,  and  to  deprive 
her  child  of  its  title  to  legitimacy. 

In  1538  the  monastery  of  the  Black  Friars, 
sharing  the  fate  of  the  other  religious  houses,  was 
surrendered  to  the  king.  In  1547  we  find  Sir 
Francis  Bryan  receiving  a  grant  of  the  prior's 
lodging  and  the  hall.  Within  a  few  years  the 
greater  remaining  portion  of  the  buildings  was 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  79 

swept  away,  and  many  fair  mansions  and  gardens 
rose  on  its  site.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned 
the  residences  of  the  French  ambassador;  of 
Lord  Herbert,  the  eldest  son  of  Edward,  Earl  of 
Worcester  ;  and  of  the  unfortunate  Henry  Brooke, 
Lord  Cobham.  In  1600,  —  on  the  occasion  of 
the  marriage  of  Lord  Herbert  with  Anne,  only 
daughter  of  John,  Lord  Russell,  —  we  find  Queen 
Elizabeth  honouring  the  nuptials  with  her  pres- 
ence. On  her  landing  at  Blackfriars  she  was 
received  by  a  gallant  company,  including  the 
bride,  by  whom  she  was  carried  in  a  kind  of  litter, 
supported  by  six  knights,  to  the  residence  of  the 
bridegroom,  where  she  dined.  The  same  night 
she  supped  with  Lord  Cobham  at  his  house  in 
Blackfriars,  passing  in  her  way  by  the  house  of 
"  Doctor  Puddin,"  who  came  forth  and  presented 
her  with  a  fan,  which  she  graciously  accepted. 
Elizabeth  was  at  this  period  a  wrinkled  queen  of 
sixty-three,  —  "  old  and  cankered,"  to  use  the  words 
of  Essex,  —  and  accordingly  it  is  not  a  little  curious 
to  find  her  acting  the  part  of  a  girl  of  eighteen  in 
the  gay  frivolities  with  which  she  was  entertained 
at  Cobham  House.  According  to  the  "  Sydney 
Papers,"  "there  was  a  memorable  masque  of  eight 
ladies,  and  a  strange*  dance  new  invented.  Their 
attire  was  this  :  each  had  a  skirt  of  cloth  of  silver ; 
a  rich  waistcoat  wrought  with  silk,  and  gold  and 
silver ;  a  mantle  of  carnation  taffeta,  cast  under 
the  arm  ;  and  their  hair  loose  about  the  shoulders, 


8o  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

curiously  knotted  and  interlaced.  Mistress  Fitton 
led ;  these  eight  lady-maskers  chose  eight  ladies 
more  to  dance  the  measures.  Mrs.  Fitton  went  to 
the  queen  and  wooed  her  to  dance ;  her  Majesty 
asked  what  she  was.  '  Affection,'  she  said.  '  Af- 
ection  ! '  said  the  queen,  « affection  is  false  ! '  Yet 
her  Majesty  rose  up  and  danced."  This  enter- 
tainment took  place  only  a  few  months  before 
she  signed  the  death-warrant  of  her  beloved  Essex, 
whose  conduct  toward  her  was  probably  then 
rankling  in  her  heart. 

In  the  following  reign,  on  the  26th  of  October, 
1623,  there  occurred  in  Blackfriars,  in  the  house 
of  Count  de  Tillier,  the  French  ambassador,  a 
frightful  accident,  which  the  Protestants  chose  to 
regard  as  a  judgment  from  heaven  to  punish  the 
idolatry  of  the  Roman  Catholics,1  A  vast  number 
of  persons  were  assembled  in  an  upper  story,  lis- 
tening to  the  oratory  of  a  famous  Jesuit  preacher, 
Father  Drury,  when  suddenly  the  floor  gave  way, 
and  nearly  one  hundred  persons,  including  the 
preacher,  were  crushed  to  death.  The  accident 
long  retained  the  name  of  the  "Fatal  Vespers." 
According  to  the  account  of  an  eye-witness,  one 
Doctor  Gouge,  "  On  the  Lord's  day,  at  night, 
when  they  fell,  there  were  numbered  ninety-one 
dead  bodies ;  but  many  of  them  were  secretly 

*This  house  was  called  Hunsdon  House,  from  its  having 
been  the  residence  of  Henry  Carey,  Baron  Hunsdon,  first  cousin 
to  Queen  Elizabeth. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  81 

conveyed  away  in  the  night,  there  being  a  pair  of 
water-stairs  leading  from  the  garden  appertaining 
unto  the  house  to  the  Thames.  Of  those  that 
were  carried  away,  some  were  buried  in  a  burial- 
place  within  the  Spanish  ambassador's  house  in 
Holborn,  amongst  whom  the  Lady  Webb  was 
one,  the  Lady  Blackstone's  daughter  another,  and 
one  Mistress  Udal  a  third.  The  bodies  of  many 
others  were  claimed  and  carried  away  by  their 
relatives  and  friends.  For  the  corpses  remaining," 
adds  Doctor  Gouge,  "  two  great  pits  were  digged, 
one  in  the  fore-court  of  the  said  ambassador's 
house,  eighteen  feet  long  and  twelve  feet  broad ; 
the  other  in  the  garden  behind  the  house,  twelve 
feet  long  and  eight  feet  broad.  In  the  former  pit 
were  laid  forty-four  corpses,  whereof  the  bodies 
of  Father  Drury  and  Father  Redyate  were  two. 
These  two,  wound  up  in  sheets,  were  first  laid 
into  the  pit,  with  a  partition  of  loose  earth  to 
separate  them  from  the  rest."  x 

In  1680  we  find  the  celebrated  engraver,  William 
Faithorne,  quitting  his  shop  opposite  the  Palsgrave 
Head  Tavern,  without  Temple  Bar,  and  retiring 
"to  a  more  private  life,"  in  Printing-house  Yard, 
Blackfriars,  where  he  died  in  1691.  Here  also 
resided  three  celebrated  painters,  Isaac  Oliver,1 

1  Oliver  was  buried  in  the  neighbouring  church  of  St.  Anne, 
Blackfriars,  which  was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  and  was  not 
rebuilt.  Its  site,  however,  is  marked  by  the  old  burying-ground, 
which  may  be  seen  in  Church  Entry,  Ireland  Yard.  "  The  parish 


82  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Cornelius  Jansen,  and  Anthony  Vandyke.  Oliver 
and  Vandyke  both  breathed  their  last  in  Black- 
friars.  Ben  Jonson  was  residing  in  Blackfriars  in 
1607,  and  here  he  has  laid  the  scene  of  the 
"  Alchymist." 

The  infamous  Earl  and  Countess  of  Somerset, 
at  the  time  when  they  were  plotting,  and  accom- 
plished, the  murder  of  Sir  Thomas  Overbury,  were 
residing  in  Blackfriars. 

In  Blackfriars  stood  the  famous  theatre  which 
bears  its  name.  It  was  built  in  1576  by  James 
Burbage,  and  in  1596  was  either  rebuilt  or  en- 
larged, when  Shakespeare  and  Richard  Burbage 
were  joint  sharers.  The  site  of  it  is  still  pointed 
out  by  Playhouse  Yard,  close  to  Apothecaries' 
Hall.  The  theatre  in  Blackfriars  was  pulled  down 
during  the  rule,  of  the  Puritans,  on  the  6th  of 
August,  1655. 

The  foundation-stone  of  the  first  Blackfriars 
Bridge,  the  work  of  Robert  Mylne,  a  Scotch  archi- 

register  records  the  burials  of  Isaac  Oliver,  the  miniature-painter 
(1617);  Dick  Robinson,  the  player  (1647);  Nat.  Field,  the  poet 
and  player  (1632-33);  William  Faithorne,  the  engraver  (1691); 
and  the  following  interesting  entries  relating  to  Vandyke,  who 
lived  and  died  in  this  parish,  leaving  a  sum  of  money  in  his  will 
to  its  poor : 

"  Jasper  Lanf ranch,  a  Dutchman,  from  Sir  Anthony  Vandikes, 
buried  1 4th  February,  1638. 

"Martin  Ashent,  Sir  Anthony  Vandike's  man,  buried  I2th 
March,  1638. 

"  Justinian,  daughter  to  Sir  Anthony  Vandyke  and  his  lady, 
baptised  gih  December,  1641." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  83 

tect,  was  laid  on  the  3ist  of  October,  1760.  It 
was  originally  called  Pitt's  Bridge,  in  honour  of 
the  great  war  minister,  William  Pitt,  Earl  of 
Chatham,  at  this  time  in  the  height  of  his  great 
and  deserved  popularity. 

Blackfriars  Bridge  is  memorable  as  having  been 
one  of  the  principal  scenes  of  outrage,  riot,  and 
carnage  during  the  famous  Protestant  outbreak 
fomented  by  Lord  George  Gordon.  On  the  fright- 
ful scenes  of  pillage  and  conflagration  which  oc- 
curred during  the  three  days  that  the  populace 
were  permitted  to  be  masters  of  the  metropolis,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  dwell.  At  length,  however,  the 
military  received  definite  orders  to  act,  and  London 
was  saved  in  the  eleventh  hour.  The  principal 
scenes  of  slaughter  were  at  the  Bank  and  Black- 
friars  Bridge.  Whether  by  accident  or  by  design, 
the  military  drove  the  rabble  before  them  along 
Farringdon  Street  and  Bridge  Street,  till  the 
bridge  was  completely  blocked  up  by  them  ;  while 
at  the  same  time  another  body  of  soldiers  hemmed 
them  in  on  the  Southwark  side  of  the  river.  The 
conflict  was  brief,  and  the  result  terrible.  Of 
the  numbers  who  perished,  of  that  compressed  and 
lawless  mass  of  human  beings,  no  record  was  ever 
sought  for  or  demanded.  Many  were  forced  over 
the  parapets  of  the  bridge  into  the  river;  many 
were  crushed  to  death  ;  and  still  more  perished  by 
the  bayonet  and  the  bullet.  The  conflict  and  the 
carnage  occupied  an  almost  incredibly  short  space 


84  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

of  time.  Within  an  hour  or  two  afterward,  the 
dying  and  the  dead  had  been  carried  away,  the 
great  city  had  resumed  its  wonted  calmness,  and 
when  day  dawned  there  remained  but  one  fearful 
evidence  of  the  contest  of  the  proceeding  night,  — 
the  causeway  of  the  bridge  was  actually  soaked 
and  red  with  blood  ! 

Immediately  to  the  west  of  Blackfriars  Bridge, 
the  celebrated  Fleet  Ditch  till  recently  ran  into  the 
Thames. 

"  By  Bridewell  all  descend, 
(As  morning  prayer  and  flagellation  end), 
To  where  Fleet  Ditch,  with  disemboguing  streams, 
Rolls  the  large  tribute  of  dead  dogs  to  Thames ; 
The  king  of  dykes !  than  whom  no  sluice  of  mud 
With  deeper  sable  blots  the  silver  flood." 

—  Dunciad. 

The  Fleet  Ditch,  or  rather  river  —  rendered 
classical  by  the  verse  of  Ben  Jonson,  Swift,  Pope, 
and  Gay  — was  anciently  a  broad  and  limpid  stream, 
which  had  its  rise  in  the  high  grounds  of  Hamp- 
stead,  and  was  further  fed  by  the  waters  of  certain 
wells,  called  Clerken-well,  Skinners-well,  Fags-well, 
Tode-well,  Loders-well,  and  Rad-well ;  "  all  which 
said  wells,"  says  Stow,  "having  the  fall  of  their 
overflowing  in  the  aforesaid  river,  much  increased 
the  stream."  It  was  from  this  circumstance  that 
it  anciently  obtained  the  name  of  the  "River  of 
Wells."  It  was  crossed  by  no  fewer  than  four 
stone  bridges  in  its  course,  by  way  of  Kentish 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  85 

Town  and  Camden  Town,  to  the  Thames ;  one 
of  these  bridges  standing  at  the  foot  of  Holborn 
Hill,  then  called  Holborn  Bridge,  at  which  point 
the  river  Fleet  united  itself  with  the  waters  of  the 
Old  Bourne,  or  stream,  from  which  Holborn  de- 
rives its  name.  Anciently,  the  tide  flowed  up  the 
Fleet  River  as  far  as  Holborn  Bridge,  the  present 
Bridge  Street  being  the  channel  of  the  stream. 
According  to  Stow,  such,  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Second,  was  the  depth  and  breadth  of  this  now 
filthy  ditch,  "that  ten  or  twelve  ships  navies  at 
once,  with  merchandises,  were  wont  to  come  to  the 
aforesaid  bridge  of  Fleet."  The  other  bridges  of 
the  Fleet  were  Fleet  Bridge,  Bridewell  Bridge,  and 
Fleet  Lane  Bridge. 

In  1606  we  find  no  less  a  sum  than  twenty- 
eight  thousand  pounds  expended  for  the  purpose 
of  scouring  the  Fleet  River  and  keeping  it  in  a 
navigable  state.  Pennant,  speaking  of  the  per- 
formance of  this  work,  observes :  "  At  the  depth 
of  fifteen  feet  were  found  several  Roman  utensils  ; 
and,  a  little  deeper,  a  great  quantity  of  Roman, 
coins,  in  silver,  copper,  brass,  and  other  metals, 
but  none  in  gold.  At  Holborn  Bridge  were  found 
two  brazen  Lares,  about  four  inches  long ;  one 
a  Bacchus,  the  other  a  Ceres.  It  is  a  probable 
conjecture  that  these  were  thrown  in  by  the  af- 
frighted Romans,  at  the  approach  of  the  enraged 
Boadicea,  who  soon  took  ample  revenge  on  her 
insulting  conquerors.  Here  were  also  found  num- 


86  LONDON   AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

bers  of  Saxon  antiquities,  —  spurs,  weapons,  keys, 
seals,  etc. ;  also  medals,  crosses,  and  crucifixes, 
which  might  likewise  have  been  flung  in  on  occa- 
sion of  some  alarm."  The  Fleet  River  was  again 
thoroughly  cleansed  in  1652,  at  a  considerable  ex- 
pense. About  sixteen  years  afterward,  in  hopes 
of  its  proving  a  lucrative  speculation,  another  large 
sum  was  expended  in  reopening  the  navigation  as 
far  as  Holborn.  For  this  purpose  the  river  was 
deepened,  wharves  and  quays  were  erected,  and  the 
banks  were  cased  with  stone  and  brick.  The  spec- 
ulation, however,  proved  anything  but  a  profitable 
one;  and  accordingly,  between  the  years  1734 
and  1737,  it  was  partially  arched  over,  and  in  con- 
sequence of  further  improvements  which  took  place 
in  1765,  was  almost  entirely  concealed  from  view. 
One  of  the  last  glimpses  to  be  caught  of  this 
nauseous  stream  we  availed  ourselves  of  many 
years  ago,  on  the  occasion  of  the  destruction  of 
some  old  houses  in  West  Street,  at  the  south  end 
of  Saffron  Hill,  which  had  been  the  hiding-place 
and  stronghold  of  thieves,  and  an  asylum  for  the 
most  depraved  of  both  sexes,  from  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne  to  our  own  time.  Here,  according 
to  tradition,  the  notorious  Jonathan  Wild  carried 
on  his  crafty  and  nefarious  traffic  of  plunder  and 
human  blood.  We  remember  well  how  the  black 
and  disgusting-looking  stream  flowed  through  a 
deep  and  narrow  channel,  encased  on  each  side 
with  brick,  and  overhung  by  miserable-looking 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  87 

dwelling-houses,  the  abode  of  poverty  and  crime. 
The  stronghold  of  the  thieves  consisted  of  two 
separate  habitations,  —  one  on  each  side  of  the 
ditch,  —  ingeniously  contrived  with  private  means 
of  communication  and  escape  from  one  to  the 
other.  For  instance,  in  the  event  of  either  being 
invaded  by  the  myrmidons  of  the  law,  a  plank 
might  be  readily  thrown  from  one  aperture  to  the 
other,  and  as  readily  withdrawn  in  the  event  of 
pursuit ;  or,  in  the  last  extremity,  the  culprit  could 
plunge  into  the  ditch,  and  pursue  his  course  down 
the  murky  stream,  till  either  some  familiar  outlet, 
or  the  habitation  of  some  friendly  companion  in 
crime,  afforded  him  the  means  of  escape.  The 
principal  building,  known  in  the  reign  of  George 
the  First  as  the  Red  Lion  Tavern,  was  unquestion- 
ably of  great  antiquity.  Its  dark  closets,  its  trap- 
doors, its  sliding  panels,  and  its  secret  recesses 
and  hiding-places,  rendered  it  no  less  secure  for 
purposes  of  robbery  and  murder,  than  as  a  refuge 
for  those  who  were  under  the  ban  of  the  law.  In 
this  house,  about  thirty  years  ago,  a  sailor  was 
robbed,  and  afterward  thrown  naked,  through  one 
of  the  apertures  which  we  have  described,  into  the 
Fleet  Ditch,  —  a  crime  for  which  two  men  and  a 
woman  were  subsequently  convicted  and  trans- 
ported for  fourteen  years.  About  the  same  time, 
although  the  premises  were  surrounded  by  the 
police,  a  thief  made  his  escape  by  means  of  its 
communications  with  the  neighbouring  houses,  the 


88  LONDON  AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

inhabitants  of  which  were  almost  universally  either 
subsistent  upon,  or  friendly  to,  pillage  and  crime. 
At  the  demolition  of  these  premises,  there  were 
found  in  the  cellars,  among  other  mysterious  evi- 
dences of  the  dark  deeds  which  had  been  perpe- 
trated within  their  walls,  numerous  human  bones, 
which,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  were  those  of 
persons  who  had  met  with  an  untimely  end. 

In  ancient  times,  the  great  city  wall,  commenc- 
ing at  the  Tower,  after  taking  a  circuit  round 
London,  terminated  nearly  at  the  foot  of  the  pres- 
ent Blackfriars  Bridge ;  running  parallel  with,  and 
to  the  east  of,  the  Fleet  River.  Here  stood  a  strong 
fortress,  the  western  Arx  Palatina  of  the  city,  the 
remains  of  which  were  afterward  used  in  construct- 
ing the  neighbouring  palace  of  Bridewell. 

Bridewell,  which  stood  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Fleet  River,  and  the  walls  of  which  were  washed 
by  its  waters,  appears  to  have  been  a  formidable 
fortress  in  the  reign  of  William  the  Conqueror, 
and  was  the  residence  of  our  sovereigns  at  least 
as  early  as  the  reign  of  King  John.  This  famous 
palatial  fortress  derived  its  name  from  a  spring,  or 
well,  which  flowed  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  which 
was  dedicated  to  St.  Bride.  It  continued  to  be 
used  as  a  palace  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  who  constantly  held  his  court  there,  and 
who  rebuilt  it  in  a  magnificent  manner  for  the 
reception  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  England  in  1522.  The 


Palace  of  'Bridewell. 

Photo-et'ching  from  a  rare  old  print. 


LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES.  89 

emperor,  however,  chose  in  preference  the  neigh- 
bouring palace  of  Blackfriars,  and  accordingly  his 
suite  only  were  lodged  in  Bridewell,  a  passage 
having  been  cut  through  the  city  wall  to  enable 
the  inmates  of  the  two  palaces*  to  communicate 
with  each  other. 

It  was  in  the  palace  of  Bridewell  that  Henry 
the  Eighth  was  holding  his  court  at  the  time  when 
the  Pope's  legate,  Cardinal  Campeius,  or  Campeg- 
gio,  arrived  in  England,  for  the  purpose  of  investi- 
gating the  legality  of  the  king's  marriage  with  the 
unfortunate  Catherine  of  Aragon.  "The  cardi- 
nal," we  are  told,  "  came  by  long  journeys  into 
England,  and  much  preparation  was  made  to  re- 
ceive him  triumphantly  into  London ;  but  he  was 
so  sore  vexed  with  the  gout  that  he  refused  all 
such  solemnities,  and  desired  that  he  might,  with- 
out pomp,  be  conveyed  to  his  lodgings,  for  his 
more  quiet  and  rest.  And  so,  on  the  Qth  of  Octo- 
ber, he  came  from  St.  Mary  Overys  by  water,  to 
the  Bishop  of  Bath's  palace  without  Temple  Bar, 
where  he  was  visited  by  Cardinal  Wolsey,  and 
diverse  other  estates  and  prelates ;  and  after  he 
had  rested  him  a  season,  he  was  brought  to  the 
king's  presence  at  Bridewell  by  the  Cardinal  of 
York,  and  carried  in  a  chair  between  four  persons, 
for  he  was  not  able  to  stand." 

In  the  palace  of  Bridewell,  "in  a  room  in  the 
queen's  apartment,"  Shakespeare  places  the  beau- 
tiful and  pathetic  scene  in  which  Catherine  asserts 


90  LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

her  rights,  and  opposes  her  simple  eloquence  to 
the  arguments  of  the  cold-blooded  cardinals. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth  the  palace  of 
Bridewell  was  converted  into  an  establishment  "for 
the  correction  and  punishment  of  idle  and  vagrant 
people,  and  for  setting  them  to  work,  that  they 
might,  in  an  honest  way,  take  pains  to  get  their 
own  livelihood."  For  the  noble  philanthropic  proj- 
ect, which  converted  the  palace  of  kings  into  an 
asylum  for  sheltering  the  houseless  and  for  reclaim- 
ing crime,  we  are  indebted  to  Bishop  Ridley.  His 
quaint  letter  on  the  subject  to  the  secretary  of 
state,  Sir  William  Cecil,  afterward  Lord  Burleigh, 
is  still  extant.  "  Good  Mr.  Cecil,"  he  writes,  "  I 
must  be  a  suitor  to  you  in  our  good  master  Christ's 
cause :  I  beseech  you  to  be  good  to  him.  The 
matter  is,  sir,  alas !  he  hath  lain  too  long  abroad 
(as  you  do  know)  without  lodging,  in  the  streets 
of  London,  both  hungry,  naked,  and  cold.  Now, 
thanks  be  to  Almighty  God,  the  citizens  are  will- 
ing to  refresh  him,  and  to  give  him  meat,  drink, 
clothing,  and  firing ;  but,  alas !  sir,  they  lack  lodg- 
ing for  him.  For,  in  some  one  house,  I  dare  say, 
they  are  fain  to  lodge  three  families  under  one 
roof.  Sir,  there  is  a  large,  wide,  empty  house  of 
the  king's  majesty's,  called  Bridewell,  that  would 
wonderfully  well  serve  to  lodge  Christ  in,  if  he 
might  find  such  good  friends  in  the  court  to  pro- 
cure in  his  cause.  Surely,  I  have  such  a  good 
opinion  of  the  king's  majesty,  that  if  Christ  had 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  91 

such  faithful  and  hearty  friends,  who  would  heart- 
ily speak  for  him,  he  should  undoubtedly  speed  at 
the  king's  majesty's  hands.  Sir,  I  have  promised 
my  brethren,  the  citizens,  to  move  you,  because  I 
do  take  you  for  one  that  feareth  God,  and  would 
that  Christ  should  lie  no  more  in  the  streets." 

Cecil  entered  warmly  into  Bishop  Ridley's  phil- 
anthropic plans,  and  accordingly,  on  the  roth  of 
April,  1553,  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Corporation  of 
the  city  of  London  were  summoned  to  attend  the 
young  king  at  Whitehall,  when  the  palace  of  Bride- 
well was  formally  surrendered  into  their  hands,  to 
be  a  refuge  and  workhouse  for  the  poor  and  unem- 
ployed. It  was  not  till  a  later  period  that  it  was 
converted  into  a  place  of  punishment  and  reforma- 
tion for  disobedient  apprentices,  street-brawlers, 
prostitutes,  and  other  idle  and  refractory  charac- 
ters. The  principal  portion  of  the  old  palace  of 
Bridewell  was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  1666. 
The  remainder  was  taken  down  in  1863.  In  the 
committee  room  are  several  portraits,  one  of  which, 
said  to  be  by  Holbein,  represents  Edward  the 
Sixth  confirming  the  charter  of  Bridewell.  There 
is  also  a  portrait  of  Charles  the  Second,  by  Sir 
Peter  Lely,  and  another  of  James  the  Second,  by 
the  same  artist. 

In  Bridewell  died  Madam  Creswell,  a  notorious 
procuress  of  the  days  of  Charles  the  Second. 
"  She  desired  by  will,"  says  Granger,  "  to  have 
a  sermon  preached  at  her  funeral,  for  which  the 


92  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

preacher  was  to  have  ten  pounds ;  but  upon  this 
express  condition,  that  he  was  to  say  nothing  but 
what  was  well  of  her.  A  preacher  was  with  some 
difficulty  found  who  undertook  the  task.  He, 
after  a  sermon  preached  on  the  general  subject 
of  mortality,  and  the  good  uses  to  be  made  of  it, 
concluded  by  saying :  '  By  the  will  of  the  de- 
ceased it  is  expected  that  I  should  mention  her, 
and  say  nothing  but  what  is  well  of  her.  All  that 
I  shall  say  of  her,  therefore,  is  this :  she  was  born 
well,  she  lived  well,  and  she  died  well ;  for  she  was 
born  with  the  name  Creswell,  she  lived  in  Clerk- 
enwell,  and  she  died  in  Bridewell.' "  The  scene 
of  the  fourth  plate  of  Hogarth's  great  work,  the 
"  Harlot's  Progress,"  is  laid  in  Bridewell. 

Immediately  to  the  west  of  Bridewell  stood 
Dorset  House,  anciently  the  residence  of  the  Bish- 
ops of  Salisbury,  and  afterward  of  that  accom- 
plished race  of  warriors  and  poets,  the  Sackvilles, 
Earls,  and  afterward  Dukes,  of  Dorset.  The  site 
is  still  pointed  out  by  Dorset  Street,  in  the  same 
manner  that  Salisbury  Court,  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood,  still  commemorates  the  residence 
of  the  bishops  of  that  see.  In  Sackville  House, 
afterward  called  Dorset  House,  lived  in  great 
magnificence  Thomas  Sackville,  Lord  Buckhurst, 
created  by  James  the  First,  in  1604,  Earl  of  Dor- 
set. This  nobleman  was  no  less  remarkable  for 
his  talents  as  a  statesman,  than  for  his  literary 
accomplishments,  being,  in  the  opinion  of  Pope, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  93 

the  best  poet  between  Chaucer  and  Spenser.  In 
Dorset  House  he  is  said  to  have  written  his  por- 
tion of  the  well-known  tragedy,  "  Ferrex  and 
Porrex."  He  was  one  of  the  commissioners  who 
tried  the  unfortunate  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and 
was  the  person  selected  to  communicate  to  her 
the  fatal  intelligence  that  her  days  were  numbered. 
The  earl  in  his  youth  had  been  principally  distin- 
guished as  a  man  of  pleasure  and  a  spendthrift ; 
so  much  so,  that  his  vast  hereditary  fortune  had 
at  one  time  nearly  slipped  through  his  hands.  As 
lord  treasurer,  however,  no  man  ever  administered 
the  public  revenues  with  more  credit  to  himself, 
or  with  greater  advantage  to  his  country.  The 
incident  which  is  stated  to  have  occasioned  the 
earl's  reformation  is  curious.  His  necessities 
having  obliged  him  to  seek  the  loan  of  a  sum  of 
money,  he  applied  to  a  wealthy  alderman  for  his 
assistance.  Happening  one  day  to  call  at  the 
citizen's  house,  he  was  allowed  to  remain  a  con- 
siderable time  unnoticed  in  an  antechamber. 
This  indignity  —  to  which  his  necessities  com- 
pelled him  to  submit  —  so  wrought  on  his  feelings 
that  he  resolved  from  that  moment  to  alter  his 
mode  of  life  ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  he  con- 
scientiously adhered  to  his  resolution. 

The  earl  died  suddenly  at  the  council-board,  on 
the  1 9th  of  April,  1608.  In  the  heat  of  argument 
he  rose  from  his  seat,  and  drawing  some  papers 
from  his  bosom,  exclaimed  with  great  vehemence, 


94  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

"  I  have  that  here  which  will  strike  you  dead."  He 
fell  down  at  the  moment,  and  died  almost  instantly. 
The  queen,  Anne  of  Denmark,  was  present  when 
he  expired.1 

In  Dorset  House  died  Richard  Sackville,  the 
third  earl ;  and  here  also  expired  Edward,  the 
fourth  earl,  celebrated  for  his  famous  duel  with 
Lord  Bruce,  but  still  more  for  his  genius  in  the 
Cabinet,  his  gallantry  on  the  field  6*f  battle,  and 
his  affectionate  attachment  to  his  unfortunate 
master,  Charles  the  First.  At  the  battle  of 
Edgehill,  the  earl  was  selected  to  take  charge 
of  the  young  Prince  of  Wales,  and  of  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  York.  Unable,  however,  to  resist 
the  generous  impulse  which  urged  him  to  join  the 
fray,  he  entrusted  the  young  princes  to  the  care  of 
others,  and  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
troops,  performed  heroic  acts  of  valour;  besides 
recovering  the  royal  standard,  which  had  been  cap- 
tured by  the  enemy.  Many  years  afterward,  on 
the  nth  of  December,  1679,  we  find  the  Duke  of 
York  writing  to  the  first  Lord  Dartmouth  :  "  The 
old  Earl  of  Dorset,  at  Edgehill,  being  commanded 
by  the  king,  my  father,  to  go -and  carry  the  prince 
and  myself  up  the  hill,  out  of  the  battle,  refused 
to  do  it,  and  said  that  he  would  not  be  thought  a 
coward  for  ever  a  king's  son  in  Christendom." 
The  earl  took  the  execution  of  his  royal  master  so 

1  His  widow,  Cicely,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Baker,  of  Sissing- 
hurst,  in  Kent,  died  in  Dorset  House  on  the  ist  of  October,  1615. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  95 

much  to  heart  that  he  shut  himself  up  in  Dorset 
House,  and  never  quitted  it  till  his  death,  on  the 
i /th  of  July,  1652. 

At  the  Restoration  we  find  the  gallant  and  loyal 
William  Cavendish,  Duke  of  Newcastle,  residing 
with  his  pompous  and  fantastic  duchess  in  a  portion 
of  Dorset  House.  It  was  shortly  afterward  taken 
down,  and  nearly  on  its  site  was  erected  the  Dorset 
Garden  Theatre,  which  stood  on  the  east  side  of 
the  present  Salisbury  Court,  with  a  front  toward 
the  river. 

This  theatre,  of  which  the  widow  of  the  well- 
known  Sir  William  Davenant  was  the  patentee, 
was  opened  on  the  Qth  of  November,  1671,  not- 
withstanding a  strong  opposition  made  to  it  by  the 
city  of  London.  The  actors,  among  whom  was 
the  well-known  Betterton,  were  styled  the  Duke 
of  York's  servants,  in  order  to  distinguish  them 
from  the  king's  company.1 

On  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  between  Dorset 
House  and  the  Temple  Garden,  stood  the  convent 
of  the  Whitefriars,  or  Carmelites,  the  site  of  which 
is  still  pointed  out  by  Whitefriars  Street.  It  was 

1  They  removed  to  Dorset  Garden  from  the  Duke's  Theatre  in 
Lincoln's  Inn.  The  duke's  servants  continued  to  perform  in 
Dorset  Garden  till  1682,  when  they  removed  to  Drury  Lane,  and 
incorporated  themselves  with  the  king's  company.  The  theatre 
in  Dorset  Garden  was  still  standing  in  1720,  shortly  after  which 
period  it  appears  to  have  been  pulled  down.  The  theatre  in 
Dorset  Garden  was  the  last  to  which  the  company  were  in  the 
habit  of  going  by  water. 


96  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

founded  in  1241,  by  Sir  Richard  Grey,  of  Codnor 
in  Derbyshire,  and  was  afterward  rebuilt,  about  the 
year  1350,  by  Hugh  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon- 
shire ;  Robert  Marshall,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  fur- 
nishing the  choir.  In  the  church  of  the  convent 
were  buried  many  persons  of  distinction,  of  whom 
Stow  has  given  us  a  long  catalogue.  Shortly  after 
the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  the  church  and 
the  other  buildings  connected  with  the  convent 
were  taken  down  ;  the  chapter-house  and  other 
parts  being  conferred  by  Henry  the  Eighth  on  his 
physician,  Henry  Butts,  whose  name  has  been 
immortalised  by  Shakespeare.  The  great  hall, 
or  refectory,  was  converted  into  the  Whitefriars 
Theatre. 

Whitefriars,  however,  still  retained  the  privilege 
of  a  sanctuary,  and  accordingly,  from  the  days  of 
James  the  First  to  those  of  William  the  Third,  we 
find  it  affording  an  asylum  to  all  kinds  of  aban- 
doned characters,  thieves,  cheats,  gamesters,  in- 
solvent debtors,  and  broken-down  poets  and  actors, 
who  dubbed  the  district  by  the  cant  title  of  Alsatia, 
a  name  rendered  famous  by  Shadwell  in  his  "  Squire 
of  Alsatia,"  and  still  more  so  by  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
in  his  "  Fortunes  of  Nigel."  "  Whitefriars,  adja- 
cent to  the  Temple,"  says  Sir  Walter,  "  then  well 
known  by  the  cant  name  of  Alsatia,  had  the  privi- 
lege of  a  sanctuary,  unless  against  the  writ  of  the 
lord  chief  justice,  or  of  the  lords  of  the  Privy 
Council  Indeed,  as  the  place  abounded  with  des- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  97 

peradoes  of  every  description,  —  bankrupt  citizens, 
ruined  gamesters,  irreclaimable  prodigals,  desperate 
duellists,  bravoes,  homicides,  and  debauched  profli- 
gates of  every  description,  all  leagued  together  to 
maintain  the  immunities  of  their  asylum,  —  it  was 
both  difficult  and  unsafe  for  the  officers  of  the  law 
to  execute  warrants  emanating  even  from  the  highest 
authority,  amongst  men  whose  safety  was  inconsist- 
ent with  warrants  or  authority  of  any  kind." 

The  scene  of  "  The  Squire  of  Alsatia  "  lies  in 
this  once  abandoned  district ;  Shadwell  going  so 
far  as  to  make  his  characters  speak  the  cant  lan- 
guage of  the  thieves  and  desperadoes  of  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  Second.  Many  of  these  words 
and  phrases  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  borrowed,  and 
placed  in  the  mouths  of  different  characters,  in 
the  debauched  scenes  into  which  he  introduces 
Lord  Glenvarloch.  Of  the  kind  of  persons  to  be 
met  with  in  this  privileged  and  lawless  district  in 
the  days  of  Charles  the  Second,  Shadwell  affords  us 
a  tolerable  idea  in  summing  up  the  character  of  his 
dramatis  persona : 

"  Cheatly.  A  rascal,  who,  by  reason  of  debts,  dares  not 
stir  out  of  Whitefriars,  but  there  inveigles  young  heirs  in 
tail,  and  helps  them  to  goods  and  money  upon  great  disad- 
vantages ;  is  bound  for  them,  and  shares  with  them  till  he 
undoes  them.  A  lewd,  impudent,  debauched  fellow,  very 
expert  in  the  cant  about  the  town. 

"  Shamwell.  Cousin  to  the  Bedfords  ;  an  heir,  who,  be- 
ing ruined  by  Cheatly,  is  made  a  decoy-duck  for  others : 
tiot  daring  to  stir  out  of  Alsatia,  where  he  lives ;  is  bound 


98  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

to  Cheatly  for  heirs,  and  lives  upon  'em  a  dissolute  debauched 
life. 

"  Capt.  Hackum.  A  blockhead  bully  of  Alsatia  ;  a  cow- 
ardly, impudent,  blustering  fellow,  formerly  a  sergeant  in 
Flanders,  run  from  his  colours,  retreated  into  Whitefriars 
for  a  very  small  debt,  where,  by  the  Alsatians  he  is  dubbed 
a  captain ;  marries  one  that  lets  lodgings,  sells  cherry 
brandy,  etc. 

"  Scrapeall.  A  hypocritical,  repeating,  praying,  psalm- 
singing,  precise  fellow,  pretending  to  great  piety ;  a  godly 
knave,  who  joins  with  Cheatly,  and  supplies  young  heirs 
with  goods  and  money." 

In  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  Alsatia  was  the 
scene  of  one  of  the  most  singular  murders  on  rec- 
ord. Robert  Grighton,  Lord  Sanquhar,  a  Scottish 
nobleman,  had  had  his  eye  accidentally  put  out  by 
one  Turner,  a  fencing-master,  while  amusing  them- 
selves with  the  foils.  Some  time  afterward,  being 
at  Paris,  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France  inquired  of 
him  how  the  accident  had  happened.  Sanquhar 
detailed  the  circumstances ;  on  which  the  king 
asked  whether  the  man  still  lived  who  had  muti- 
lated him.  The  question  had  such  an  effect  upon 
Lord  Sanquhar  that  he  hired  two  of  his  country- 
men, named  Irving  and  Carlile,  to  waylay  and 
shoot  the  unfortunate  fencing-master.  According 
to  the  "State  Trials,"  "These  two,  about  seven 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  came  to  a  house  in  the 
Friars,  which  Turner  used  to  frequent  as  he  came 
to  his  school,  which  was  near  that  place,  and  find- 
ing Turner  there,  they  saluted  one  another,  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITY  •  •  :    '    '^9  ' 

Turner,  with  one  of  his  friends,  sat  at  the  door, 
asking  them  to  drink  ;  but  Carlile  and  Irving,  turn- 
ing about  to  cock  the  pistol,  came  back  immediately, 
and  Carlile,  drawing  it  from  under  his  coat,  dis- 
charged it  upon  Turner,  and  gave  him  a  mortal 
wound  near  the  left  pap  ;  so  that  Turner,  after  hav- 
ing said  these  words, '  Lord  have  mercy  upon  me  !  I 
am  killed,'  immediately  fell  down.  Whereupon  Car- 
lile and  Irving  fled,  Carlile  to  the  town,  and  Irving 
toward  the  river  ;  but  the  latter,  mistaking  his  way, 
and  entering  into  a  court  where  they  sold  wood, 
which  was  no  thoroughfare,  he  was  taken.  The 
Baron  of  Sanquhar  likewise  fled.  The  ordinary 
officers  of  justice  did  their  utmost,  but  could  not 
take  them ;  for,  in  fact,  as  appeared  afterward, 
Carlile  fled  into  Scotland,  and  toward  the  sea, 
thinking  to  go  to  Sweden,  and  Sanquhar  hid  him- 
self in  England. 

They  did  not  long,  however,  elude  the  vigilance 
of  justice.  Having  been  severally  tried  and  found 
guilty,  Lord  Sanquhar  was  hanged  in  New  Palace 
Yard,  opposite  to  the  entrance  to  Westminster 
Hall,  and  Irving  and  Carlile  in  Fleet  Street,  oppo- 
site to  the  entrance  to  Whitefriars.  Lord  San- 
quhar's  body  was  allowed  to  remain  suspended  a 
much  longer  time  than  usual,  in  order  that  "  people 
might  take  notice  of  the  king's  greater  justice,"  in 
putting  the  laws  in  force  against  a  powerful  noble- 
man and  one  of  his  own  countrymen.  Peyton,  how- 
ever, in  his  "  Divine  Catastrophe,"  relates  a  curious 


•  itio  -LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

anecdote,  which,  if  true,  places  the  conduct  of  James 
in  a  very  different  light.  Lord  Sanquhar,  he  says, 
was  on  one  occasion  present  at  the  court  of  Henry 
the  Fourth  of  France,  when  some  one  happened 
to  speak  of  his  royal  master  as  the  "  English  Solo- 
mon." King  Henry  —  alluding  to  the  supposed 
attachment  of  James's  mother  to  David  Rizzio  — 
observed  sarcastically,  "  I  hope  the  name  is  not 
given  him  because  he  is  David  the  fiddler's  son." 
This  conversation  was  repeated  to  James,  and, 
accordingly,  when,  some  time  afterward,  the 
friends  of  Lord  Sanquhar  implored  him  to  save 
his  life,  he  is  said  to  have  refused  the  application 
on  the  ground  that  Lord  Sanquhar  had  neglected 
to  resent  the  insult  offered  to  his  sovereign. 

Whitefriars  continued  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of 
a  sanctuary  till  1697,  when,  in  consequence  of  the 
riotous  proceedings  which  constantly  took  place 
within  its  precincts,  and  the  encouragement  which 
it  held  out  to  vice  and  crime,  it  was  abolished  by 
act  of  Parliament.  The  other  sanctuaries,  whose 
privileges  were  swept  away  at  the  same  time,  were 
those  of  Mitre  Court,  Ram  Alley,  and  Salisbury 
Court,  Fleet  Street ;  the  Savoy,  in  the  Strand  ; 
Fulwood's  Rents,  Holborn ;  Baldwin's  Gardens, 
in  Gray's  Inn  Lane ;  the  Minories,  and  Deadman 
Place,  Montague  Close  ;  and  the  Clink,  and  the 
Mint,  in  South wark.  In  the  Tatler  of  the  loth 
of  September,  1 709,  Alsatia  is  spoken  of  as  being 
in  ruins. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES;  ;        ;  iW 

The  great  lawyer,  John  Shelden,  James  Shir- 
ley, the  dramatic  poet,  John  Ogilvy,  the  poet, 
and  Sir  Balthazar  Gerbier,  the  painter,  were  at 
different  periods  residents  in  Whitefriars.  Selden 
died  here,  in  1654,  in  the  Friary  House,  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Countess  of  Kent,  to  whom  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  he  was  privately  married. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

LONDON    BRIDGE. 

Antiquity  of  Old  London  Bridge  —  Legend  of  the  Erection  of 
the  First  Bridge  —  Canute's  Expedition  —  The  First  Stone 
Bridge — Its  Appearance  —  Traitors'  Heads  Affixed  Thereon 
—  Tenants  and  Accidents  on  It  —  Suicides  under  It  —  Pag- 
eants across,  and  Fights  on  It  —  Edward  the  Black  Prince  — 
Wat  Tyler  —  Lords  Welles  and  Lindsay  —  Richard  II. — 
Henry  V.  —  Sigismund  —  Henry  VI.  —  Jack  Cade  —  Bastard 
of  Falconbridge  —  Wolsey  —  Osborne  —  Wyatt  —  Charles 
II.  —  Decapitated  Persons. 

OF  the  ancient  structures  which  have  been  swept 
away  within  the  memory  of  living  persons,  there 
is  not  one  which  was  more  replete  with  histori- 
cal and  romantic  associations  than  old  London 
Bridge.  At  the  time  of  its  demolition  in  1832, 
it  had  existed  upward  of  six  centuries.  From  the 
days  of  the  Normans  till  the  reign  of  George  the 
Second  it  had  been  the  only  thoroughfare  which 
had  united  not  only  the  southern  counties  of 
England,  but  the  whole  of  Europe,  with  the  great 
metropolis  of  the  West.  Apart  from  its  connec- 
tion with  ancient  manners  and  customs,  we  must 
remember  that,  for  a  long  lapse  of  years,  it  was 
over  this  famous  causeway  that  the  wise,  the 


London  Bridge. 

IMioto-etc'ning  after  the  painting  by  S.  Scott. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  103 

noble,  and  the  beautiful,  from  all  countries  and  all 
climes,  —  the  adventurer  in  search  of  gold  ;  the 
Jesuit  employed  on  his  dark  mission  of  mystery 
and  intrigue ;  the  ambassador  followed  by  his 
gorgeous  suites ;  philosophers,  statesmen,  and 
poets,  —  passed  in  their  journey  to  the  great  com- 
mercial capital  of  the  world.  Every  princely  pro- 
cession from  the  continent  of  Europe,  every  fair 
bride  who  has  come  over  to  be  wedded  to  our 
earlier  sovereigns,  every  illustrious  prisoner,  from 
the  days  of  Cressy  and  Agincourt  to  those  of 
Blenheim  and  Ramillies,  has  passed  in  succes- 
sion over  old  London  Bridge.  Westminster 
Abbey,  the  Tower,  and  the  Temple  Church,  still 
remain  to  us  as  venerable  relics  of  the  past ;  but 
old  London  Bridge,  with  its  host  of  historical 
associations,  has  passed  away  for  ever ! 

- Stow,  on  the  authority  of  Bartholomew  Linsted, 
alias  Fowle,  the  last  prior  of  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  Overy's,  Southwark,  relates  a  curious  legend 
in  regard  to  the  circumstances  which  first  led  to 
the  erection  of  a  bridge  over  the  Thames,  at  Lon- 
don. "  A  ferry,"  he  says,  "  being  kept  in  place 
where  now  the  bridge  is  builded,  at  length  the 
ferryman  and  his  wife  deceasing,  left  the  same 
ferry  to  their  only  daughter,  a  maiden  named 
Mary,  which,  with  the  goods  left  by  her  parents, 
and  also  with  the  profits  arising  out  of  the  said 
ferry,  builded  an  house  of  sisters  in  place  where 
now  standeth  the  east  part  of  St.  Mary  Overy's 


104  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

church,  above  the  quire,  where  she  was  buried, 
unto  which  house  she  gave  the  oversight  and 
profits  of  the  ferry.  But  afterward  the  said  house 
of  sisters  being  converted  into  a  college  of  priests, 
the  priests  builded  the  bridge  of  (timber),  as  all 
the  other  the  great  bridges  of  this  land  were,  and 
from  time  to  time  kept  the  same  in  good  repara- 
tions ;  till  at  length,  considering  the  great  charges 
of  repairing  the  same,  there  was,  by  aid  of  the 
citizens  of  London  and  others,  a  bridge  built  with 
arches  of  stone." 

That  at  a  very  remote  period  there  existed  a 
constructed  passage  over  the  Thames,  nearly  on 
the  site  of  the  present  London  Bridge,  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe.  The  first  notice,  how- 
ever, of  a  "  bridge  "is  to  be  found  in  994,  in  the 
reign  of  Ethelred  the  Second.  It  was  supported 
by  piles,  or  posts,  sunk  in  the  bed  of  the  river; 
was  fortified  with  turrets  and  bulwarks,  and  was 
broad  enough  to  admit  of  one  carriage  passing 
another.  It  was  in  this  reign  that  Olaf,  or  Olave, 
King  of  Norway,  sailed  in  his  expedition  up  the 
Thames  as  far  as  London,  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  King  Ethelred  to  drive  away  the  Danish 
adventurers  who  then  held  possession,  not  only  of 
the  metropolis,  but  of  a  great  portion  of  the  king- 
dom. It  was  in  the  successful  attempt  to  reduce 
the  defences  of  the  bridge  that  the  great  fight 
took  place  between  the  contending  parties.  Vic- 
tory decided  in  favour  of  the  English.  In  the 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  105 

conflict  a  vast  number  of  the  Danes  were  eithei 
killed  or  drowned,  the  remainder,  who  fled  in  all 
directions,  being  speedily  compelled  to  submit  to 
the  authority  of  King  Ethelred. 

The  bridge  on  this  occasion  is  said  to  have  been 
completely  destroyed ;  but  that  it  was  speedily 
rebuilt  is  evident  from  the  fact  of  the  forces  of 
Canute,  King  of  Denmark,  having  been  impeded 
by  a  bridge  at  London  on  the  occasion  of  his  lead- 
ing a  fleet  up  the  Thames  in  1016.  Defeated  in 
his  attempts  to  reduce  the  bridge  by  assault,  he 
had  recourse  to  an  expedient  which  shows  how 
great  were  his  resources.  "  He  caused,"  says  Pen- 
nant, "  a  prodigious  ditch  to  be  cut  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Thames,  at  Rotherhithe,  or  RedrifF,  a 
little  to  the  east  of  Southwark,  which  he  continued 
at  a  distance  from  the  south  end  of  the  bridge,  in 
form  of  a  semicircle,  opening  into  the  western  part 
of  the  river.  Through  this  he  drew  his  ships,  and 
effectually  completed  the  blockade  of  the  city. 
But  the  valour  of  the  citizens  obliged  him  to  raise 
the  siege.  Evidences  of  this  great  work  were 
found  in  the  place  called  the  Dock  Head  at  Redriff, 
where  it  began.  Fascines  of  hazels  and  other 
brushwood,  fastened  down  with  stakes,  were  dis- 
covered in  digging  that  dock  in  1694  ;  and  in  other 
parts  of  its  course  have  been  met  with,  in  ditching, 
large  oaken  planks,  and  numbers  of  piles." 

From  the  period  of  King  Canute's  expedition 
we  find  few  notices  of  London  Bridge  till  1091,  in 


io6  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

which  year  it  is  said  to  have  been  entirely  swept 
away  by  a  furious  tempest,  whose  devastations 
extended  over  London,  destroying  several  churches, 
and  no  fewer  than  six  hundred  private  houses.  The 
bridge  was  speedily  rebuilt,  but  was  again  destroyed 
by  a  fearful  conflagration  which  took  place  in  1 136, 
and  which  desolated  London  from  Aldgate  to  St. 
Paul's. 

According  to  Stow,  London  Bridge  was  entirely 
rebuilt  of  wood  in  1163,  by  one  Peter,  curate  of 
St.  Mary  Colechurch,  apparently  the  most  eminent 
architect  of  his  day.  In  consequence,  however,  of 
the  perishable  nature  of  its  materials,  and  the  great 
expense  of  keeping  it  in  repair,  it  was  determined 
to  replace  it  with  a  bridge  of  stone,  and  accord- 
ingly, between  the  years  1176  and  1209,  it  was 
rebuilt  of  that  material  under  the  auspices  of  the 
same  Peter,  who  died  about  four  years  previously 
to  the  completion  of  his  great  work. 

London  Bridge,  at  a  very  early  period  after  its 
erection  of  stone,  appears  to  have  had  a  row  of 
houses  on  each  side  of  it,  forming  a  narrow  and 
continuous  street.  Besides  shops  and  other  tene- 
ments, it  had  its  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Thomas  a 
Becket,  which  stood  on  the  east  side,  almost  in  the 
centre  of  the  bridge,  and  within  which  chapel  the 
architect,  Peter  of  Colechurch,  was  buried.  It  had 
also  a  drawbridge,  between  the  chapel  and  the 
Southwark  end  of  the  bridge,  which  was  not  only 
useful  both  as  a  means  of  defence,  but  as  enabling 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  107 

vessels  with  masts  to  pass  up  the  river.  The  draw- 
bridge was  protected  by  a  strong  tower,  besides 
which  there  was  another  tower  at  the  Southwark 
end.  On  each  side  of  the  bridge,  between  the 
houses,  were  three  openings,  which  afforded  pas- 
sengers a  view  of  the  river  and  shipping.  The 
houses  on  both  sides  are  described  as  overhanging 
the  river  in  a  manner  which  impressed  the  mind 
almost  with  terror. 

There  are  few  persons  in  whose  imaginations 
old  London  Bridge  is  not  associated  with  the  ex- 
posure of  a  number  of  grisly  heads  of  traitors  and 
other  criminals,  which,  affixed  to  poles,  gave  a 
ghastly  appearance  to  the  bridge.  Till  the  six- 
teenth century,  the  place  where  these  heads  were 
exposed  was  the  top  of  the  drawbridge-tower.  In 
consequence,  however,  of  this  tower  having  been 
pulled  down,  and  replaced  by  a  wooden  building 
called  Nonsuch  House,  they  were  thenceforward 
affixed  on  the  tower  at  the  Southwark  end.  In 
1591,  the  German  traveller,  Hentzner,  counted  no 
fewer  than  thirty  heads  on  this  tower. 

The  old  stone  bridge,  commenced  by  Peter  of 
Colechurch  in  1176,  notwithstanding  numerous 
accidents  by  flood  and  fire,  retained  its  original 
character  essentially  the  same  till  the  year  1757, 
when,  in  consequence  of  the  increase  of  traffic 
between  London  and  Southwark,  the  houses  were 
pulled  down.  "  I  well  remember,"  says  Pennant, 
"the  street  on  London  Bridge,  narrow,  darksome, 


io8  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

and  dangerous  to  passengers  from  the  multitude 
of  carriages ;  frequent  arches  of  strong  timber 
crossed  the  street,  from  the  tops  of  the  houses,  to 
keep  them  together,  and  from  falling  into  the 
river.  Nothing  but  use  could  preserve  the  rest  of 
the  inmates,  who  soon  grew  deaf  to  the  noise 
of  the  falling  waters,  the  clamours  of  watermen,  or 
the  frequent  shrieks  of  drowning  wretches.  Most 
of  the  houses  were  tenanted  by  pin  or  needle- 
makers,  and  economical  ladies  were  wont  to  drive 
from  the  St.  James's  end  of  the  town  to  make 
cheap  purchases."  The  old  bridge,  after  having 
existed  for  upwards  of  six  centuries,  was  at  length 
taken  down -in  1832,  the  first  pile  of  the  present 
magnificent  structure  having  previously  been  driven 
on  the  1 5th  of  March,  1824. 

The  appearance  of  old  London  Bridge,  with  its 
gateway  at  each  end,  its  drawbridge,  its  Gothic 
chapel,  its  fortified  towers,  and  its  rows  of  curi- 
ously fashioned  houses  overhanging  the  rapid  and 
roaring  river,  must  have  been  striking  and  pictur- 
esque in  the  extreme.  The  gloomy  thoroughfare 
between  the  houses  was,  at  the  widest  part,  only 
twenty  feet  in  breadth,  and  in  some  places  only 
twelve.  We  have  already  seen,  from  Pennant's 
description,  that  in  his  time  the  houses  were  prin- 
cipally occupied  by  a  colony  of  pin  or  needle- 
makers.  Many  years  previously,  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  they  had  been  chiefly  tenanted  by  book- 
sellers ;  indeed,  London  Bridge  enjoyed  then  nearly 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  109 

the  same  kind  of  literary  reputation  as  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard  and  Paternoster  Row  in  our  own  time. 
Among  the  publishers'  signs  on  the  bridge,  as 
appears  by  the  title-pages  attached  to  contempo- 
rary publications,  were  the  "Three  Bibles,"  the 
"Angel,"  and  the  "Looking-glass;"  the  former 
continuing  to  exist  as  late  as  the  year  1724.  Early, 
however,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  First,  London 
Bridge  appears  to  have  lost  its  exclusive  character 
for  harbouring  any  particular  branch  of  trade.  Of 
the  forty-three  houses  burnt  down  in  a  frightful 
conflagration  which  nearly  consumed  the  bridge  in 
1633,  one  was  inhabited  by  a  needle-maker,  eight 
by  haberdashers  of  small  wares,  six  by  hosiers,  five 
by  haberdashers  of  hats,  one  by  a  shoemaker, 
three  by  silkmen,  one  by  a  milliner,  two  by  glovers, 
two  by  mercers,  one  by  a  distiller  of  strong  waters, 
one  by  a  girdler,  one  by  a  linen-draper,  two  by 
woollen-drapers,  one  by  a  salter,  two  by  grocers, 
one  by  a  scrivener,  one  by  the  curate  of  St.  Mag- 
nus Church,  one  by  the  clerk,  and  one  by  a  female 
whose  occupation  is  not  stated,  while  two  others 
were  unoccupied. 

Of  the  value  of  the  houses  on  the  bridge  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  the  First,  some  curious  particu- 
lars have  been  handed  down  to  us.  For  the  greater 
number  of  the  houses  at  the  Southwark  end,  the 
Crown  received  only  eleven  shillings  and  four- 
pence  rents  of  assize ;  and  only  sixteen  shillings 
and  a  halfpenny  for  the  customs  on  goods  sold 


no  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

there.  The  rent  of  several  of  the  houses  amounted 
to  no  more  than  three  halfpence,  and  twopence 
halfpenny ;  and  a  fruiterer's  shop,  described  to 
have  been  two  yards  and  a  half  and  one  thumb  in 
length,  and  three  yards  and  two  thumbs  in  depth, 
was  let  on  a  lease  from  the  bridgemaster  at  a 
rental  of  twelvepence. 

We  have  already  made  a  passing  reference  to- 
the  two  most  remarkable  buildings  on  the  bridge, 
namely,  the  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Thomas  a 
Becket,  and  Nonsuch  House.  The  former,  which 
had  a  winding  staircase  leading  down  to  the  river, 
was  coeval  with  the  bridge  itself,  and  continued  to 
be  a  place  of  worship  till  the  Reformation.  It  was 
of  black  and  white  marble  pavement.  Its  crypt, 
with  its  vaulted  roof  and  elegant  clustered  columns, 
is  said  to  have  been  extremely  beautiful.  Within 
the  starlings  of  the  pier  which  supported  the 
chapel  was  anciently  a  piscatorium,  or  fish-pond, 
covered  over  with  an  iron  grating  which  prevented 
the  escape  of  the  fish  that  had  been  carried  in  by 
the  tide.  Mr.  Thomson,  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for  so  many  interesting  memorials  of  Lon- 
don Bridge,  informs  us  that  in  1827  there  was 
still  living  one  of  the  old  functionaries  connected 
with  the  bridge  —  then  verging  upon  his  hun- 
dredth year  —  who  well  remembered  having  de- 
scended the  winding  staircase  leading  from  the 
chapel,  in  order  to  fish  in  the  pond.  About 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century  the  venerable 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  in 

old  chapel  was  converted  into  a  warehouse  and 
shop,  which,  in  1737,  were  tenanted  by  a  Mr. 
Yaldwyn.  This  person,  while  repairing  a  staircase, 
is  said  to  have  discovered  the  remains  of  a  sepul- 
chral monument,  which  there  was  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve was  that  of  Peter  of  Colechurch,  the  architect 
of  the  bridge.  At  a  later  period  we  find  the  chapel 
occupied  by  a  Mr.  Baldwin,  a  haberdasher.  This 
person,  when  in  his  seventy-second  year,  was,  in 
consequence  of  the  impaired  state  of  his  health, 
recommended  by  his  medical  adviser  to  retire  for 
a  time  into  the  country,  for  the  advantage  of  fresh 
air  and  quiet.  Accordingly  he  proceeded  to  Chisel- 
hurst  ;  but  so  accustomed  was  he  to  the  monoto- 
nous roar  of  the  river,  as  it  rushed  through  the 
narrow  arches  of  London  Bridge,  that  the  con- 
trasted lull  and  stillness  of  the  country  entirely 
deprived  him  of  sleep. 

" Petruchio.      What,  are    they  mad?    have    we    another 

Bedlam  ? 
They  do  not  talk,  I  hope  ? 

Sophocles.  Oh,  terribly, 

Extremely  fearfully !  the  noise  at  London  Bridge 
Is  nothing  near  her." 

—  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Woman's  Prize. 

The  last  individuals  who  occupied  St.  Thomas's 
chapel,  previously  to  its  demolition,  were  a  Mr. 
Gill  and  a  Mr.  Wright,  during  whose  occupancy  it 
was  used  as  a  paper  warehouse. 


112  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Nonsuch  House  also,  at  the  period  of  its  des- 
truction, was  used  for  the  purposes  of  trade. 
This  fantastic-looking  structure  —  which  was  of 
wood,  and  elaborately  carved  —  is  said  to  have 
been  brought  piecemeal  from  Holland,  and  to 
have  been  set  up  and  fixed  together  entirely  by 
means  of  wooden  pegs.  It  spanned  the  bridge ; 
having  turrets  at  each  of  its  four  corners  crowned 
by  domes,  and  surmounted  by  gilt  weathercocks, 
which  were  conspicuous  objects  from  almost  every 
part  of  the  metropolis. 

During  an  existence  of  upwards  of  six  centuries, 
it  was  natural  that  London  Bridge  should  have 
been  subjected  to  numerous  accidents  and  catas- 
trophes. On  the  night  of  the  loth  of  July,  1212, 
only  three  years  after  its  completion,  a  dreadful 
fire  took  place,  by  which  several  houses  were 
destroyed,  and  a  great  number  of  persons  lost 
their  lives.  Unfortunately,  the  church  of  St. 
Mary  Overy,  on  the  Southwark  side  of  the  river, 
also  caught  fire,  and  a  strong  southerly  wind  blow- 
ing at  the  same  time,  the  flames  were  suddenly 
carried  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  bridge,  thus 
hemming  in,  in  a  single  narrow  causeway,  a 
dense  mass  of  agonised  human  beings.  Many 
persons  were  trampled  to  death  ;-  others  leaped 
into  the  river,  only  to  find  a  watery  grave  ;  a  still 
greater  number  perished  in  the  flames.  Accord- 
ing to  Stow,  "  About  three  thousand  bodies  were 
found  in  part  or  half-burnt,  besides  those  that 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  113 

were  wholly  burned  to  ashes,  and  could  not  be 
found." 

The  next  formidable  accident  which  appears  to 
have  occurred  to  London  Bridge  was  in  1282,  at 
the  breaking  up  of  a  great  frost,  on  which  occasion 
a  furious  wind,  added  to  a  strong  tide,  bearing 
along  with  it  large  masses  of  floating  ice,  carried 
away  five  of  the  arches. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  disastrous  fire 
which  took  place  on  the  night  of  the  I3th  of 
February,  1633,  when  forty-three  tenements  were 
destroyed.  Then  followed  the  great  fire  of  1666, 
which  swept  away  everything  before  it.  The  last 
fire  on  the  bridge,  of  which  we  have  any  record, 
broke  out  on  the  night  of  the  8th  of  September, 
1725,  when  several  houses  were  laid  in  ruins. 

Many  of  our  readers  may  remember  well  the 
almost  terrific  falls  of  water  which,  at  the  retreat 
of  the  tide,  poured  through  the  narrow  arches  of 
old  London  Bridge.  Thousands  of  lives  had  been 
lost  in  descending  these  falls,  yet  for  centuries 
apparently  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  abate 
the  grievance.  "  Of  the  multitudes,"  says  Pen- 
nant, "who  have  perished  in  this  rapid  descent, 
the  name  of  no  one  of  any  note  has  reached  my 
knowledge,  except  that  of  Mr.  Temple,  only  son 
of  the  great  Sir  William  Temple.  His  end  was 
dreadful,  as  it  was  premeditated.  He  had  a  week 
before  accepted  from  King  William  the  office  of 
secretary  at  war.  On  the  i4th  of  April,  1689, 


H4  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

he  hired  a  boat  on  the  Thames,  and  directed  the 
waterman  to  shoot  the  bridge ;  at  that  instant  he 
flung  himself  into  the  torrent,  and,  having  filled 
his  pockets  with  stones  to  destroy  all  chance  of 
safety,  instantly  sunk.  In  the  boat  was  found 
a  note  to  this  effect :  '  My  folly  in  undertaking 
what  I  could  not  perform,  whereby  some  misfor- 
tunes have  befallen  the  king's  service,  is  the  cause 
of  my  putting  myself  to  this  sudden  end.  I  wish 
him  success  in  all  his  undertakings,  and  a  better 
servant.' " 

Another  remarkable  case  of  self-destruction  be- 
tween the  arches  of  old  London  Bridge  was  that  of 
the  unfortunate  Eustace  Budgell,  in  1737.  Bud- 
gell,  as  is  well  known,  was  a  relation  of  Addison, 
and  the  writer  of  some  papers  in  the  Spectator. 
Being  threatened  with  a  prosecution,  on  a  charge 
of  having  forged  the  will  of  Doctor  Tindal,  in 
which  he  had  provided  himself  with  a  legacy  of 
^2,000,  he  determined  to  put  an  end  to  his 
existence. 

"  Let  Budgell  charge  low  Grub  Street  on  his  quill, 
And  write  whate'er  he  please,  —  except  my  will." 

—  Pope. 

Accordingly,  having  previously  filled  his  pockets 
with  stones,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Temple,  he 
hired  a  wherry  at  the  stairs  of  Somerset  House, 
and,  just  as  the  boat  was  passing  under  London 
Bridge,  suddenly  threw  himself  into  the  water,  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  115 

was  immediately  drowned.  In  his  escritoire  was 
found  a  short  scrap  of  a  will,  written  a  day  or 
two  before  his  death,  in  which  he  bequeathed  the 
whole  of  his  personal  property  to  his  natural  daugh- 
ter, Anne  Budgell,  then  about  eleven  years  old,  who 
afterward  became  an  actress  of  some  celebrity, 
and  who  died  at  Bath  about  the  year  1775.  It 
was  rumoured  at  the  time  that  he  had  endeavoured 
to  persuade  her  to  accompany  him,  and  share  his 
fate,  but  the  circumstance  of  his  carefully  be- 
queathing her  his  property  goes  far  to  refute  the 
truth  of  the  story.  In  his  bureau  were  found 
the  following  lines : 

"  What  Cato  did,  and  Addison  approved, 
Cannot  be  wrong." 

As  if,  because  the  Roman  hero  of  Addison's 
tragedy  happened  to  commit  suicide,  Addison  him- 
self was  an  advocate  for  self-destruction.  Boswell, 
in  his  "  Life  of  Johnson,"  observes  :  "  We  talked 
of  a  man's  drowning  himself.  Johnson:  'I  should 
never  think  it  time  to  make  away  with  myself.'  I 
put  the  case  of  Eustace  Budgell,  who  was  accused 
of  forging  a  will,  and  sunk  himself  in  the  Thames 
before  the  trial  of  its  authenticity  came  on.  « Sup- 
pose, sir, '  said  I,  '  that  a  man  is  absolutely  sure  that 
if  he  lives  a  few  days  longer  he  shall  be  detected 
in  a  fraud,  the  consequence  of  which  will  be  utter 
disgrace  and  expulsion  from  society  ? '  Johnson : 
*  Then,  sir,  let  him  go  abroad  to  a  distant  country  ; 


n6  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

let  him  go  to  some  place  where  he  is  not  known. 
Don't  let  him  go  to  the  devil,  where  he  is  known.' ' 
Old  London  Bridge  is  associated  with  some  of 
the  most  interesting  events  in  the  history  of  our 
country.  It  was  across  this  famous  thoroughfare 
that,  on  the  24th  of  May,  1357,  Edward  the  Black 
Prince  rode  side  by  side  with  his  illustrious  pris- 
oner, John,  King  of  France,  whom  he  had  recently 
taken  captive  at  the  battle  of  Poictiers.  At  South- 
wark  they  were  met  by  a  cavalcade  of  the  princi- 
pal citizens,  in  their  scarlet  robes  and  gold  chains ; 
so  great  being  the  concourse  of  people  that,  al- 
though the  cavalcade  passed  over  London  Bridge 
at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  it  was  high 
noon  before  they  reached  Westminster  Hall, 
where  King  Edward  the  Third  was  seated  on  his 
throne  prepared  to  do  them  honour.  The  French 
monarch,  we  are  told,  sumptuously  arrayed  in 
regal  apparel,  was  mounted  on  a  cream-coloured 
charger  covered  with  splendid  trappings,  while  the 
Black  Prince  in  order  to  avoid  every  appearance  of 
triumph,  contented  himself  with  riding  by  his  side 
on  a  black  pony.  King  Edward  had  previously 
issued  orders  to  the  lord  mayor,  Sir  Henry  Picard, 
to  receive  the  captive  monarch  with  all  the  respect 
due  to  his  misfortunes  and  to  his  exalted  rank.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  houses  on  London  Bridge,  as  well 
as  in  the  different  streets  through  which  the  proces- 
sion passed,  were  hung  with  the  richest  tapestry,  and 
adorned  with  plate  and  glittering  armour.  "The 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  117 

citizens,"  writes  Knyghton,  "  especially  boasted  of 
their  warlike  furniture,  and  exposed  that  day  in 
their  shops,  windows,  and  balconies  such  an  incred- 
ible quantity  of  bows  and  arrows,  shields,  hel- 
mets, corslets,  breast  and  back  plates,  coats  of 
mail,  gauntlets,  vambraces,  swords,  spears,  battle 
axes,  harness  for  horses,  and  other  armour,  both 
offensive  and  defensive,  that  the  like  had  never 
been  seen  in  memory  of  man  before."  We  have 
already  mentioned  that  the  lord  mayor,  Sir  Henry 
Picard,  had  subsequently  the  honour  of  entertain- 
ing no  fewer  than  four  monarchs  at  his  house  in 
the  Vintry,  namely,  Edward  the  Third,  John,  King 
of  France,  David,  King  of  Scotland,  and  the  King 
of  Cyprus,  besides  Edward  the  Black  Prince  and 
the  principal  nobility  of  the  realm. 

The  circumstance  of  London  Bridge  having 
been  the  only  land  communication  between  the 
southern  counties  and  the  metropolis  has  rendered 
it  on  many  occasions  the  scene  of  conflict  and 
slaughter.  In  spite  of  its  formidable  defences, 
Wat  Tyler,  on  the  I3th  of  June,  1381,  forced 
his  way  over  it  into  the  metropolis  at  the  head 
of  the  Kentish  rebels.  Froissart  describes  them 
as  shouting  and  yelling  in  their  progress,  "as 
though  all  the  devylles  of  hell  had  been  amonge 
them."  At  first  the  warders  refused  to  let  down 
the  drawbridge ;  but  the  insurgents,  having  ter- 
rified them  into  obedience,  rushed  impetuously 
forward,  and,  pouring  themselves  into  the  city, 


n8  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

commenced  those  fearful  acts  of  devastation  and 
bloodshed  of  which  we  have  fortunately  but  few 
parallel  cases  in  our  history.  On  London  Bridge, 
too,  it  was,  on  St.  George's  Day,  1395,  that  John, 
Lord  Welles,  the  champion  of  English  chivalry, 
and  David  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawford,  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  Scottish  chivalry,  met  to  decide  by 
single  combat  the  claims  of  their  two  countries  to 
superiority  of  valour.  Lord  Welles  had  fought 
under  the  banner  of  John,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  dur- 
ing the  wars  of  Edward  the  Third.  He  had  sub- 
sequently served  with  distinction  in  the  Scottish 
campaigns ;  and,  on  the  return  of  peace,  was  ap- 
pointed by  Richard  the  Second  his  ambassador 
in  that  country.  "  As  soon,"  we  are  told,  "as  the 
day  of  battle  was  come,  both  the  parties  were  con- 
veyed to  the  bridge,  and  soon  after,  by  sound  of 
trumpet,  the  two  parties  ran  hastily  together,  on 
their  barbed  horses,  with  square  grounden  spears, 
to  the  death.  Earl  David,  notwithstanding  the  val- 
iant dint  of  spears  broken  on  his  helmet  and  vis- 
age, sat  so  strongly  that  the  people,  moved  with 
vain  suspicion,  cried,  '  Earl  David,  contrary  to  the 
laws,  is  bound  to  the  saddle.'  Earl  David,  hearing 
this  murmur,  dismounted  off  his  horse,  and,  with- 
out any  support  or  help,  ascended  again  into  the 
saddle.  Incontinent  they  rushed  together  with 
the  new  spears  the  second  time,  with  burning  ire 
to  conquer  honour ;  but  in  the  third  course  the 
Lord  Welles  was  sent  out  of  his  saddle  with  such 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  119 

a  violence  that  he  fell  to  the  ground.  Earl  David, 
seeing  his  fall,  dismounted  hastily  from  his  horse, 
and  tenderly  embraced  him,  that  the  people  might 
understand  he  fought  with  no  hatred,  but  only  for 
the  glory  of  victory ;  and  in  the  sign  of  more 
humanity  he  visited  him  every  day  while  he  recov- 
ered his  health,  and  then  returned  into  Scotland." 

It  was  over  London  Bridge,  on  the  I3th  of 
November,  1396,  that  Richard  the  Second  con- 
ducted his  young  bride,  Isabella,  eldest  daughter 
of  Charles  the  Sixth  of  France,  to  whom  he  had 
been  married  in  the  church  of  St.  Nicholas  at 
Calais,  on  the  3ist  of  the  preceding  month.  The 
king  brought  her,  we  are  told,  "with  all  the 
honour  that  might  be  devised,"  from  Dover  to 
the  palace  of  Westminster ;  such  multitudes  flock- 
ing to  behold  their  progress,  that  on  London 
Bridge  "nine  persons  were  crowded  to  death," 
among  whom  was  the  Prior  of  the  Austin  Canons 
at  Tiptree,  in  Essex. 

The  next  event  of  any  interest  connected  with 
old  London  Bridge  occurred  on  the  23d  of  Novem- 
ber, 1415,  when  Henry  the  Fifth  passed  over  it 
on  his  return  from  his  great  victory  of  Agincourt. 
The  citizens  of  London,  as  usual  on  such  occasions, 
had  prepared  a  magnificent  pageant  to  celebrate 
the  return  of  their  chivalrous  monarch.  Accord- 
ing to  Lydgate,  at  the  Southwark  gate  stood  the 
figure  of  a  giant,  "  full  grim  of  might,  to  teach  the 
penal  men  curtesye ;  "  and  at  the  drawbridge  towers 


120  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

were  erected  figures  of  lions  and  antelopes,  with 
a  colossal  statue  of  St.  George  surrounded  by 
numerous  angels.  The  king's  whole  journey  from 
Dover  to  London  resembled  a  triumph.  "  I  might 
declare  unto  you,"  writes  Hall,  the  chronicler, 
"  how  the  Mayor  of  London  and  the  Senate,  appar- 
elled in  grained  scarlet,  —  how  three  hundred  com- 
moners, clad  in  beautiful  murrey,  well  mounted  and 
gorgeously  horsed,  with  rich  collars  and  great 
chains, — met  the  king  at  Blackheath,  rejoicing  at 
his  victorious  return  ;  how  the  clergy  of  London, 
with  rich  crosses,  and  sumptuous  copes,  received 
him  at  St.  Thomas  of  Watering,  with  solemn  pro- 
cession, lauding  and  praising  God  for  the  high 
honour  and  victory  to  him  given  and  granted : 
but  all  these  things  I  omit." 

On  the  /th  of  May,  the  following  year,  London 
Bridge  presented  a  scarcely  less  stirring  and 
magnificent  scene,  on  the  occasion  of  the  arrival 
of  the  German  Emperor  Sigismund,  in  England. 
At  Blackheath  he  was  met  by  a  large  concourse 
of  knights  and  noblemen,  who  conducted  him  in 
triumph  over  London  Bridge,  and  thence  through 
the  streets  to  the  palace  of  Westminster.  Over 
London  Bridge,  also,  in  February,  1421,  Henry 
the  Fifth  passed  with  his  young  queen,  Katherine, 
daughter  of  Charles  the  Sixth,  to  whom  he  had 
recently  been  united  in  France.  "  Marvel  it  is 
to  write,"  says  Hall,  "but  marvel  it  was  to  see 
with  what  joy,  what  triumph,  what  solace,  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  121 

what  rejoicing  he  was  received  of  all  his  subjects, 
but  in  especial  of  the  Londoners,  which  for  tedi- 
ousness  I  overpass."  On  the  3ist  of  August,  the 
following  year,  in  the  zenith  of  his  triumphant 
career,  Henry  breathed  his  last  in  the  Bois  de 
Vincennes,  near  Paris.  Exactly  seven  years  after 
the  day  on  which  the  victor  had  ridden  in  triumph 
over  London  Bridge  after  the  battle  of  Agincourt, 
the  funeral  car  which  contained  his  remains  rolled 
over  the  same  thoroughfare.  The  car,  drawn  by 
six  horses,  supported  a  recumbent  effigy  of  the 
deceased  monarch,  magnificently  arrayed  in  the 
robes  of  sovereignty.  "  Upon  the  head,"  we  are 
told,  "was  set  an  imperial  diadem  of  gold  and 
precious  stones  ;  on  the  body  a  purple  robe  furred 
with  ermine ;  in  his  right  hand  a  sceptre  royal ; 
and  in  his  left  hand  a  ball  of  gold  with  a  cross 
fixed  thereon  ;  and,  in  this  manner  adorned,  was 
this  figure  laid  in  a  bed  in  the  said  chariot,  with 
his  visage  uncovered  toward  the  heavens ;  and  the 
coverture  of  his  bed  was  of  red  silk,  beaten  with 
gold." 

When  his  youthful  successor,  Henry  the  Sixth, 
approached  London,  after  his  coronation  at  Paris, 
he  was  met  at  Blackheath  by  a  large  assemblage 
of  the  citizens,  who  conducted  him  with  great 
pomp  across  London  Bridge  to  the  palace  of  his 
Saxon  predecessors  at  Westminster.  On  reaching 
the  middle  of  the  bridge,  according  to  Stow,  the 
king  was  encountered  by  a  "  mighty  giant,"  who, 


122  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

"with  a  sword  drawn  in  his  hand,  had  certain 
written  speeches  in  metre,  of  great  rejoicing  and 
welcoming  of  the  king  to  the  city."  Three  years 
afterward,  on  the  28th  of  May,  1445, — on  the 
arrival  in  England  of  Henry's  bride,  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  —  London  Bridge  was  again  the  scene  of 
military  and  fantastic  pageantry.  During  this 
reign  also  more  than  one  sanguinary  conflict  took 
place  on  the  bridge.  Here,  in  1450,  the  famous 
fight  took  place  between  Jack  Cade  and  the 
citizens  of  London,  in  which  many  lives  were 
lost,  and  the  houses  on  the  bridge  set  on  fire. 
"  Alas ! "  says  Hall,  "  what  sorrow  it  was  to  be- 
hold that  miserable  chance!  for  some,  desiring 
to  eschew  the  fire,  leapt  on  his  enemy's  weapon 
and  so  died ;  fearful  women,  with  children  in  their 
arms,  amazed  and  appalled,  leapt  into  the  river; 
others,  doubting  how  to  save  themselves,  between 
fire,  water,  and  sword,  were  in  their  houses  suffo- 
cated and  smothered."  Eighteen  years  afterward, 
in  1468,  we  find  the  citizens  valiantly  and  success- 
fully defending  the  bridge  against  the  assault  of 
Sir  Geoffrey  Gates,  who,  in  revenge  for  his  re- 
pulse, pillaged  Southwark,  Bermondsey,  and  other 
hamlets  on  the  south  side  of  the  Thames. 

But  perhaps  the  most  furious  and  important 
conflict  which  ever  took  place  on  London  Bridge 
was  fought  on  the  I4th  of  May,  1471,  when  the 
Bastard  of  Falconbridge,  at  the  head  of  seventeen 
thousand  men,  attempted  to  force  his  way  into 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  123 

London,  in  the  hope  of  releasing  his  unfortunate 
sovereign,  Henry  the  Sixth,  then  a  prisoner  in 
the  Tower.  The  citizens,  however,  were  de- 
votedly attached  to  the  house  of  York,  and  in 
vain  did  the  Bastard,  by  his  voice  and  example, 
urge  on  his  followers  to  fresh  acts  of  valour.  He 
succeeded,  indeed,  in  forcing  the  Southwark  gate, 
which  he  set  fire  to ;  but  here  his  progress  was 
arrested  by  the  determined  resistance  of  the 
citizens,  and  within  a  few  weeks  his  severed  head 
was  to  be  seen  a  conspicuous  object  on  the 
very  defences  which  had  so  recently  witnessed 
his  valour. 

On  the  I2th  of  November,  1501,  we  find  the 
ill-fated  Catherine  of  Aragon  escorted  in  great 
state  by  the  citizens  of  London  over  London 
Bridge,  when  on  her  way  to  be  married  to  Prince 
Arthur,  elder  brother  of  Henry  the  Eighth.  It 
was  along  the  same  thoroughfare  that  her  arch- 
enemy, Cardinal  Wolsey,  subsequently  passed  in 
more  than  regal  splendour  when  proceeding  as 
ambassador  to  France.  According  to  Cavendish, 
lie  rode  on  a  mule  sumptuously  caparisoned  with 
crimson  velvet ;  there  being  carried  in  front  of 
him  two  great  crosses  of  silver,  two  large  pillars 
of  the  same  metal,  the  Great  Seal  of  England,  and 
the  cardinal's  hat.  The  procession  was  headed 
by  a  vast  number  of  sumpter-mules,  carts,  and 
carriages,  guarded  by  armed  men  bearing  bows 
and  spears.  Next  came  "of  gentlemen,  a  great 


124  LONDON   AND  ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

number,  three  in  a  rank,  in  black  velvet  livery- 
coats,  and  the  most  part  of  them  with  great  chains 
of  gold  about  their  necks  ;  and  all  his  yeomen, 
with  noblemen's  and  gentlemen's  servants  follow- 
ing him,  in  French  tawny  livery-coats,  having  em- 
broidered upon  the  backs  and  breasts  of  the  said 
coats  these  letters,  T.  and  C,  under  the  cardinal's 
hat."  The  cardinal  himself  brought  up  the  rear. 

The  next  interesting  event  connected  with  Lon- 
don Bridge  is  one  entirely  of  a  domestic  nature, 
but  is  not  on  that  account  the  less  deserving  of 
notice.  We  allude  to  a  well-known  and  romantic 
incident  to  which  the  house  of  Osborne  owes  its 
ducal  honours.  The  hero  of  the  tale  was  a  young 
man,  named  Edward  Osborne,  who  was  apprentice 
to  a  citizen  and  cloth-worker,  named  William  Hewet, 
afterward  knighted,  whose  residence  was  in  one 
of  the  houses  on  London  Bridge,  overlooking  the 
rapid  stream.  Sir  William  had  an  only  and  be- 
loved daughter,  Anne,  who,  in  the  year  1536, 
either  while  playing  with  the  servant  who  had 
the  charge  of  her,  or  losing  her  balance  while 
leaning  out  of  a  window,  accidentally  fell  into  the 
river.  Young  Osborne,  who  happened  to  be  a 
witness  of  the  disaster,  without  a  moment's  hesi- 
tation leapt  after  her,  and  rescued  her  from  a 
watery  grave.  It  was  an  act  of  generous  gallantry 
which  was  never  forgotten  by  the  fond  father.  Years 
rolled  on  ;  the  cloth-worker  had  achieved  the 
highest  civic  honours,  and  had  become  the  wealthi- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  125 

«st  citizen  in  London.  Love  in  the  meantime  had 
sprung  up  between  the  gallant  apprentice  and  the 
fair  girl ;  but  unfortunately  the  reputation  of  her 
father's  wealth  had  surrounded  her  with  a  host 
of  noble  admirers,  among  whom  is  said  to  have 
been  George,  fourth  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  who, 
though  advanced  in  years,  was  a  man  not  un- 
worthy of  winning  so  fair  a  prize.  The  chances 
of  success  were  certainly  greatly  against  the  hum- 
ble but  gallant  apprentice.  Sir  William  Hewet, 
however,  tempting  as  was  the  opportunity  of  ag- 
grandising his  family,  was  true  to  the  interests 
and  the  happiness  of  the  preserver  of  his  child. 
"  Osborne,"  he  said,  "  saved  her,  and  Osborne 
shall  enjoy  her."  In  due  time  they  were  married  ; 
and  subsequently  Osborne  became  possessed  of 
the  vast  property  of  his  father-in-law.  He  was 
advanced  to  be  Sheriff  of  London  in  1575,  to  be 
lord  mayor  in  1582,  and  in  1585  he  was  elected 
to  represent  the  city  in  Parliament. 

It  was  on  the  3d  of  February,  1554,  shortly 
after  the  accession  of  Queen  Mary,  that  Sir 
Thomas  Wyatt  made  his  famous  and  ill-advised 
attempt  to  force  the  defences  of  London  Bridge. 
The  citizens  of  London,  however,  were  prepared 
to  receive  the  daring  insurgent  with  the  gallantry 
with  which,  for  centuries,  they  had  resisted  simi- 
lar rebellious  attempts.  Cannon  were  planted  on 
the  bridge ;  the  bridge-gates  were  closed  ;  and  the 
drawbridge,  instead  of  being  merely  raised,  as 


126  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

was  in  the  case  of  Wat  Tyler's  insurrection,  was 
cut  down  and  thrown  into  the  river.  The  mayor 
and  aldermen,  moreover,  issued  orders  to  the 
citizens  to  close  their  doors  and  windows ;  en- 
joining them  to  be  "ready-harnessed  at  their 
doors,"  prepared  for  any  emergency.  These  pre- 
cautions had  the  desired  effect.  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt,  having  published  at  Maid  stone  his  decla- 
ration against  the  queen's  evil  advisers  and  the 
proposed  matrimonial  alliance  with  Spain,  ad- 
vanced with  his  forces  to  Southwark,  where,  in- 
stead of  rinding  the  citizens  prepared  to  receive 
him  with  the  ardour  which  he  had  anticipated, 
he  had  the  mortification  to  discover  that  they 
were  resolved  to  resist  him  to  the  last.  The 
result  is  well  known.  Finding  that  the  bridge 
was  secured  against  him,  he  led  his  forces  to 
Kingston  on  Thames,  where  he  crossed  the  river 
with  four  thousand  men.  He  then  directed  his 
course  toward  London,  where  he  still  hoped  to 
effect  a  successful  rising ;  but  though  he  entered 
Westminster  without  opposition,  his  followers, 
finding  that  he  was  joined  by  no  person  either  of 
rank  or  influence,  gradually  deserted  his  standard, 
and  he  himself,  having  been  seized  by  Sir  Maurice 
Berkeley  near  Temple  Bar,  was  shortly  afterward 
executed. 

It  was  rather  more  than  a  century  after  this 
event  that  London  Bridge  presented  a  gay  and 
stirring  scene,  on  the  occasion  of  Charles  the 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  127 

Second  making  his  entry  into  the  metropolis 
after  his  almost  miraculous  restoration.  He  was 
attended  by  General  Monk,  afterward  Duke  of 
Albemarle,  and  by  the  Dukes  of  York,  Glouces- 
ter, and  Buckingham.  In  his  progress  from  Dover 
to  London,  the  most  costly  preparations,  and  the 
wildest  effusions  of  joy,  had  encountered  him  at 
every  step.  The  road  was  everywhere  thronged 
with  spectators ;  on  Barham  Downs  he  was  met 
by  a  brilliant  train  of  the  neighbouring  nobility 
and  gentry,  "  clad  in  very  rich  apparel ;  at  Black- 
heath  the  army  was  drawn  up,  and  received  him 
with  loud  acclamations  of  fervent  joy ;  and  in  the 
town  of  Deptford,  a  hundred  young  girls,  dressed 
in  white,  walked  before  the  king,  and  strewed 
flowers  in  his  path.  In  the  towns  through  which 
he  passed,  the  houses  were  everywhere  decorated 
with  silken  streamers,  ribands,  and  garlands  of 
flowers,  and  music  and  acclamations  were  the  only 
sounds  which  met  his  ear.  In  the  villages,  the 
joy  of  the  country  people  was  not  less  fervently 
displayed ;  the  old  music  of  tabor  and  pipe,  as 
well  as  their  favourite  morrice-dances,  and  other 
rural  games  and  sports,  adding  considerably  to  the 
effect  of  the  joyous  scene.  In  St.  George's  Fields, 
South wark,  the  king  was  met  by  the  Lord  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  of  London  in  their  scarlet  gowns, 
who  conducted  him  to  a  large  tent  covered  with 
rich  tapestry,  where  he  was  entertained  with  a  mag- 
nificent banquet.  The  remark  made  by  Charles, 


128  LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

on  the  enthusiasm  which  everywhere  greeted  him, 
is  well  known.  It  must  have  been  his  own  fault, 
he  said,  that  he  had  been  so  long  absent,  for  his 
subjects  seemed  to  be  unanimous  in  promoting  his 
return.  Thus  welcomed,  and  almost  worshipped, 
the  young  monarch  passed  over  London  Bridge 
amidst  the  roar  of  cannon  and  the  acclamations  of 
thousands.  The  houses  on  each  side  of  the  bridge, 
as  well  as  in  the  different  streets  through  which 
he  passed,  were  hung  with  tapestry  and  garlands 
of  flowers ;  bands  of  music  struck  up  their  con- 
gratulatory notes  at  stated  places  ;  the  train  bands 
of  the  city,  in  rich  dresses,  lined  the  principal 
street,  and  the  city  conduits  flowed  with  wine. 
At  night  the  sky  was  alight  with  illuminations, 
bonfires,  and  fireworks,  and  the  people  were  re- 
galed with  a  profusion  of  wine  and  food. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  number  of 
ghastly  heads,  which,  elevated  on  poles  on  London 
Bridge,  grinned  horribly  on  the  passer-by.  To 
enumerate  the  names  of  the  host  of  decapitated 
persons  whose  heads  were  thus  exposed  would 
comprise  a  long  and  melancholy  catalogue.  After 
the  destruction  of  the  drawbridge-tower,  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  building  on  which  the 
heads  of  malefactors  was  exposed  was  the  tower 
at  the  Southwark  end  of  the  bridge.  It  is  a  fact 
that  within  this  tower  was  a  cooking  apparatus 
and  cauldron,  in  which  the  heads  and  quarters  of 
those  who  had  been  executed  for  high  treason 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  129 

were  parboiled,  and  underwent  a  regular  process 
for  preserving  them  against  the  effects  of  the  at- 
mosphere. The  heads  were  then  elevated  on  the 
defences  of  the  bridge,  and  the  quarters  packed 
off  to  be  exposed  on  the  gates  of  the  principal 
cities  in  the  kingdom.  Among  the  most  remark- 
able persons  whose  remains  were  thus  mangled, 
and  whose  heads  were  exposed  on  London  Bridge, 
may  be  mentioned  the  illustrious  Scottish  patriot, 
William  Wallace,  and  his  dauntless  companion  in 
arms,  Sir  Simon  Frazer;  the  Earls  of  Fife  and 
Monteith,  who  were  taken  prisoners  at  the  battle 
of  Neville's  Cross ;  Simon  Sudbury,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  who  was  murdered  by  the  rebels 
in  Wat  Tyler's  insurrection  ;  the  Earl  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, brother-in-law  to  Henry  the  Fourth ;  the 
stout  and  venerable  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
father  of  Henry  Hotspur ;  the  Bastard  Falcon- 
bridge  ;  the  wise  and  witty  Sir  Thomas  More ; 
and  the  pious  and  learned  John  Fisher,  Bishop 
of  Rochester. 

With  regard  to  the  exposure  of  the  head  of 
Bishop  Fisher,  a  curious  anecdote  is  related  by 
the  chronicler,  Hall.  "The  head,"  he  says,  "be- 
ing parboiled,  was  prickt  upon  a  pole,  and  set  on 
high  upon  London  Bridge,  among  the  rest  of  the 
holy  Carthusians'  heads  that  suffered  death  lately 
before  him.  And  here  I  cannot  omit  to  declare 
unto  you  the  miraculous  sight  of  this  head,  which, 
after  it  had  stood  up  the  space  of  fourteen  days 


130  LONDON   AND   ITS    CELEBRITIES. 

upon  the  bridge,  could  not  be  perceived  to  waste 
nor  consume,  neither  for  the  weather,  which  was 
then  very  hot,  neither  for  the  parboiling  in  hot 
water,  but  grew  daily  fresher  and  fresher,  so  that 
in  his  lifetime  he  never  looked  so  well ;  for  his 
cheeks  being  beautified  with  a  comely  red,  the 
face  looked  as  though  it  had  beholden  the  people 
passing  by,  and  would  have  spoken  to  them." 

The  head  of  Sir  Thomas  More  is  said  to  have 
retained  in  a  scarcely  less  singular  manner,  and  for 
a  still  longer  period,  the  appearance  of  vitality  and 
health.  At  the  time  of  his  death  his  hair  had  be- 
come gray,  but  (as  in  the  case  of  Charles  the  First, 
whose  remains  were  discovered  in  St.  George's 
Chapel  at  Windsor  in  1813)  the  colour  appears  to 
have  changed  after  death  to  a  "  reddish  or  yellow  " 
hue.  The  head  of  this  great  man,  it  is  said,  was 
about  to  be  thrown  into  the  Thames,  in  order  to 
make  room  for  that  of  some  later  victim,  when  his 
beloved  daughter,  Mrs.  Roper,  contrived  to  obtain 
possession  of  it.  As  before  related,  she  preserved 
it  in  a  leaden  box  till  the  day  of  her  death,  when 
it  was  placed  in  her  arms  and  interred  with  her  in 
the  family  vault  of  the  Ropers,  in  St.  Dunstan's 
Church,  Canterbury. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  that  the  illustri- 
ous painter,  Hans  Holbein,  is  said  to  have  resided 
at  one  period  of  his  life  in  one  of  the  houses  on 
London  Bridge.  According  to  Horace  Walpole, 
"  The  father  of  the  Lord  Treasurer  Oxford,  pass- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  131 

ing  over  London  Bridge,  was  caught  in  a  shower* 
when,  stepping  into  a  goldsmith's  shop  for  shelter, 
he  found  there  the  picture  of  Holbein,  who  had 
lived  in  that  house,  and  of  his  family.  He  offered 
the  goldsmith  a  hundred  pounds  for  it,  who  con- 
sented to  let  him  have  it,  but  desired  first  to  show 
it  to  some  persons.  Immediately  after  happened 
the  fire  of  London,  and  the  picture  was  destroyed." 
In  London  Bridge  also  resided,  at  later  periods> 
two  eminent  painters  of  marine  subjects,  Peter 
Monamy,  and  Dominic  de  Serres. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    FIRE    OF    LONDON. 

Where  the  Fire  Originated  —  Charles  II.'s  Noble  Conduct  — 
Pepys's  Account  of  the  Fire  —  Evelyn's  "  Diary  "  —  Farry- 
ner's  Account  of  the  Origin  of  the  Fire  —  Attributed  to  the 
Roman  Catholics  —  The  Monument  —  Original  Inscription  — 
Damage  Caused  by  the  Fire  —  Description  of  the  Monument. 

How  few  are  there,  who  have  stood  on  Fish 
Street  Hill,- 

"  Where  London's  column,  pointing  at  the  skies, 
Like  a  tall  bully,  lifts  the  head,  and  lies,  —  " 

who  have  not  lingered  to  ruminate  on  that  fearful 
conflagration,  which  the  magnificent  column  before 
us  was  raised  to  commemorate !  Near  this  spot 
was  kindled  and  broke  out  that  raging  and  memo- 
rable flame,  which,  driven  irresistibly  forward  by  a 
furious  wind,  fed  itself  in  its  fierce  course  alike 
with  the  gilded  palaces  of  the  rich  and  the  humble 
dwellings  of  the  poor,  deafening  the  ear  with  the 
sound  of  falling  roofs  and  crackling  timbers,  and 
lighting  up  the  Thames  till  it  gleamed  like  a  lake 
of  fire ;  destroying  out  of  the  twenty-six  wards  of 
the  city  no  fewer  than  fifteen,  and  leaving  the 

132 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  133 

remainder  scorched,  ruinous,  and  uninhabitable ; 
consuming  the  massive  gates  of  the  city,  the  Guild- 
hall, eighty-nine  churches,  the  magnificent  cathe- 
dral of  St.  Paul's,  numbers  of  schools,  hospitals, 
libraries,  and  other  public  structures,  four  hundred 
streets,  and  thirteen  thousand  dwelling-houses ; 
and  at  last,  after  having  raged  during  four  days 
and  four  nights,  leaving  a  tract  of  ruin  and  desola- 
tion extending  over  no  fewer  than  436  acres. 

The  great  fire  of  London  broke  out  at  twelve 
o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  2d  of  September,  1666, 
at  the  house  of  one  Farryner,  the  king's  baker, 
in  Pudding  Lane,  at  the  distance  of  202  feet  (the 
height  of  the  column)  to  the  eastward  of  the  spot 
where  the  monument  now  stands.  The  progress 
of  the  flames,  chiefly  in  consequence  of  the  high 
wind  which  prevailed,  was  inconceivably  rapid. 
Unfortunately,  not  only  were  the  thoroughfares 
in  the  neighbourhood  extremely  narrow,  but  the 
houses  were  chiefly  composed  of  wood  and  plaster, 
and  many  of  them  had  thatched  roofs.  The  sud- 
denness, too,  of  the  catastrophe,  the  furious  rapidity 
with  which  the  fire  extended  itself,  and  the  awful 
sublimity  of  the  scene,  appear  to  have  rendered 
the  populace  utterly  helpless.  "The  conflagra- 
tion," writes  an  eye-witness,  "was  so  universal, 
and  the  people  so  astonished,  that  from  the  begin- 
ning, I  know  not  by  what  despondency  or  fate, 
they  hardly  stirred  to  quench  it ;  so  that  there 
was  nothing  heard  or  seen  but  crying  out  and 


134  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

lamentation,  running  about  like  distracted  crea- 
tures, without  at  all  attempting  to  save  even  their 
goods,  such  a  strange  consternation  was  there 
upon  them." 

The  lord  mayor,  moreover,  on  whose  energy  and 
presence  of  mind  so  much  depended,  appears  to 
have  been  a  person  totally  unqualified  to  act  the 
part  required  of  him.  In  singular  opposition  to 
the  conduct  of  the  affrighted  functionary  was  that 
of  Charles  the  Second,  who,  hurrying  personally 
to  the  scene,  acted  sensibly,  nobly,  and  energet- 
ically; issuing  the  wisest  directions,  as  well  to 
preserve  order,  as  to  ameliorate  the  miserable 
condition  of  the  houseless  and  starving  inhabit- 
ants ;  giving  orders  for  pulling  down  houses  in  all 
directions,  to  prevent  the  further  progress  of  the 
flames ;  and  himself  passing  the  four  fearful  days, 
sometimes  on  horseback  and  sometimes  on  foot, 
in  visiting  the  points  where  the  fire  raged  most 
fiercely,  encouraging  the  workmen  by  his  presence, 
and  exhorting  them  to  increased  exertions  by  prom- 
ises, example,  or  threats.  According  to  a  contem- 
porary MS.  quoted  by  Echard,  "All  own  the 
immediate  hand  of  God,  and  bless  the  goodness 
of  the  king,  who  made  the  round  of  the  fire  usually 
twice  every  day,  and  for  many  hours  together,  on 
horseback  and  on  foot,  gave  orders  for  pursuing  the 
work  by  threatenings,  desires,  example,  and  good 
store  of  money,  which  he  himself  distributed  to 
the  workers,  out  of  a  hundred-pound  bag,  which 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  135 

he  carried  with  him  for  that  purpose."  It  would 
be  unfair  to  the  memory  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
afterward  James  the  Second,  not  to  notice  that  he 
followed  the  example  set  him  by  his  royal  brother, 
with  similar  alacrity,  good  feeling,  and  zeal. 

Many  accounts  have  been  handed  down  to  us  of 
the  great  fire  of  London,  but  none  are  so  truthful, 
or  so  graphically  written,  as  those  of  Evelyn  and 
Pepys,  who  were  not  only  eye-witnesses  of  what 
they  describe,  but  were  well  qualified  to  appreciate 
the  greatness  of  the  calamity,  and  the  awful  sub- 
limity of  the  scene.  The  extracts  from  their 
several  diaries  are  somewhat  lengthy,  but  are  too 
interesting  to  be  much  curtailed.  Pepys,  who  was 
at  this  period  residing  in  Seething  Lane,  Crutched 
Friars,  thus  writes,  under  date  the  2d  of  Septem- 
ber : 

"Lord's  Day.  Some  of  our  maids  sitting  up 
late  last  night  to  get  things  ready  against  our 
feast  to-day,  Jane  called  us  up  about  three  in  the 
morning,  to  tell  us  of  a  great  fire  they  saw  in  the 
city.  So  I  rose,  and  slipped  on  my  nightgown, 
and  went  to  her  window,  and  thought  it  to  be  on 
the  back  side  of  Mark  Lane  at  the  farthest,  but 
being  unused  to  such  fires  as  followed,  I  thought 
it  far  enough  off,  and  so  went  to  bed  again,  and  to 
sleep.  About  seven,  rose  again  to  dress  myself, 
and  there  looked  out  at  the  window,  and  saw  the 
fire  not  so  much  as  it  was,  and  farther  off.  By 
and  by,  Jane  comes  and  tells  me  that  she  hears 


136  LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

that  above  three  hundred  houses  have  been  burned 
down  to-night  by  the  fire  we  saw,  and  that  it  is 
now  burning  down  all  Fish  Street,  by  London 
Bridge.  So  I  made  myself  ready  presently,  and 
walked  to  the  Tower,  and  there  got  up  upon  one 
of  the  high  places ;  Sir  J.  Robinson's  little  son 
going  up  with  me ;  and  there  I  did  see  the  houses 
at  that  end  of  the  bridge  all  on  fire,  and  an  infinite 
great  fire  on  this  and  the  other  side  of  the  end  of 
the  bridge  ;  which,  among  other  people,  did  trouble 
me  for  poor  little  Michell  and  our  Sarah  on  the 
bridge.  So  down,  with  my  heart  full  of  trouble,  to 
the  lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  who  tells  me  that  it 
begun  this  morning  in  the  king's  baker's  house  in 
Pudding  Lane,  and  that  it  hath  burned  down  St. 
Magnus's  Church,  and  most  part  of  Fish  Street 
already.  So  I  down  to  the  waterside,  and  there 
got  a  boat,  and  through  bridge,  and  there  saw  a 
lamentable  fire.  Poor  Michell's  house,  as  far  as 
the  Old  Swan,  already  burned  that  way,  and  the 
fire  running  farther,  that  in  a  very  little  time  it  got 
as  far  as  the  Steel-yard,  while  I  was  there.  Every- 
body endeavouring  to  remove  their  goods,  and 
flinging  into  the  river,  or  bringing  them  into 
lighters  that  lay  off;  poor  people  staying  in  their 
houses  as  long  as  till  the  very  fire  touched  them, 
and  then  running  into  boats,  or  clambering  from 
one  pair  of  stairs  by  the  waterside  to  another. 
And  among  other  things,  the  poor  pigeons,  I 
perceive,  were  loath  to  leave  their  houses,  but 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  137 

hovered  about  the  windows  and  balconies,  till  they 
burned  their  wings,  and  fell  down.  Having  stayed, 
and  in  an  hour's  time  seen  the  fire  rage  every  way, 
and  nobody,  to  my  sight,  endeavouring  to  quench 
it,  but  to  remove  their  goods,  and  leave  all  to  the 
fire,  and  having  seen  it  get  as  far  as  the  Steel- 
yard, and  the  wind  mighty  high,  and  driving  it  into 
the  city ;  and  everything  after  so  long  a  drought 
proving  combustible,  even  the  very  stones  of 
churches,  and  among  other  things,  the  poor 

steeple '    by  which    pretty   Mrs.   lives,   and 

whereof  my  old  schoolfellow  Elborough  is  parson, 
taking  fire  in  the  very  top,  and  there  burned  till  it 
fell  down  ;  I  to  Whitehall  in  my  boat,  and  there  up 
to  the  king's  closet  in  the  chapel,  where  people 
come  about  me,  and  I  did  give  them  an  account 
dismayed  the  mall,  and  word  was  carried  in  to  the 
king.  So  I  was  called  for,  and  did  tell  the  king 
and  Duke  of  York  what  I  saw,  and  that  unless  his 
Majesty  did  command  houses  to  be  pulled  down, 
nothing  could  stop  the  fire. 

"  They  seemed  much  troubled ;  and  the  king 
commanded  me  to  go  to  my  lord  mayor  from  him, 
and  command  him  to  spare  no  houses,  but  to  pull 
down  before  the  fire  every  way.  The  Duke  of 
York  bid  me  tell  him  that  if  he  would  have  any 
more  soldiers,  he  shall ;  and  so  did  my  Lord  Arling- 
ton afterward,  as  a  great  secret.  Here,  meeting  with 
Captain  Cocke,  I  in  his  coach,  which  he  lent  me,  to 

1  St.  Laurence  Poultney. 


138  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Paul's,  and  there  walked  along  Watling  Street,  as 
well  as  I  could,  —  every  creature  coming  away 
loaded  with  goods  to  save,  and  here  and  there  sick 
people  carried  away  in  beds.  Extraordinary  good 
goods  carried  in  carts  and  on  backs.  At  last  met 
my  lord  mayor  in  Cannon  Street,  like  a  man  spent, 
with  a  handkercher  about  his  neck.  To  the  king's 
message  he  cried,  like  a  fainting  woman,  'Lord, 
what  can  I  do  ?  I  am  spent ;  people  will  not  obey 
me.  I  have  been  pulling  down  houses ;  but  the 
fire  overtakes  us  faster  than  we  can  do  it.'  That 
he  needed  no  more  soldiers  ;  and  that,  for  himself, 
he  must  go  and  refresh  himself,  having  been  up 
all  night.  So  he  left  me,  and  I  him,  and  walked 
home ;  seeing  people  all  almost  distracted,  and  no 
manner  of  means  used  to  quench  the  fire.  The 
houses,  too,  so  very  thick  thereabouts,  and  full  of 
matter  for  burning,  as  pitch  and  tar,  in  Thames 
Street ;  and  warehouses  of  oil,  and  wines,  and 
brandy,  and  other  things.  And  to  see  the  churches 
all  filling  with  goods  by  people,  who  themselves 
should  have  been  quietly  there  at  this  time.  By 
this  time  it  was  about  twelve  o'clock  ;  and  so  home. 
"  Soon  as  dined,  I  and  Moone  away,  and  walked 
through  the  city ;  the  streets  full  of  nothing  but 
people,  and  horses,  and  carts  loaded  with  goods, 
ready  to  run  over  one  another,  and  removing  goods 
from  one  burned  house  to  another.  They  now 
removing  out  of  Cannon  Street  (which  received 
goods  in  the  morning)  into  Lombard  Street  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  139 

farther ;  and  among  others  I  now  saw  my  little 
goldsmith  Stokes  receiving  some  friend's  goods, 
whose  house  itself  was  burned  the  day  after. 

"  We  parted  at  Paul's ;  he  home,  and  I  to  Paul's 
Wharf,  where  I  had  appointed  a  boat  to  attend  me, 
and  took  in  Mr.  Carcasse  and  his  brother,  whom 
I  met  in  the  street,  and  carried  them  below  and 
above  bridge,  too.  And  again  to  see  the  fire,  which 
was  now  got  farther,  both  below  and  above,  and 
no  likelihood  of  stopping  it.  Met  with  the  king 
and  Duke  of  York  in  their  barge,  and  with  them 
to  Queenhithe,  and  there  called  Sir  Richard  Browne 
to  them.  Their  order  was  only  to  pull  down 
houses  apace ;  and  so  below  bridge  at  the  water- 
side ;  but  little  was  or  could  be  done,  the  fire 
coming  upon  them  so  fast.  Good  hopes  there 
were  of  stopping  it  at  the  Three  Cranes  above,  and 
at  Botolph's  Wharf  below  bridge,  if  care  were  used  ; 
but  the  wind  carries  it  into  the  city,  so  as  we  know 
not  by  the  waterside  what  it  do  there.  River  full 
of  lighters  and  boats  taking  in  goods ;  and  good 
goods  swimming  in  the  water  ;  and  only  I  observed 
that  hardly  one  lighter  or  boat  in  three  that  had 
the  goods  of  a  house  in,  but  there  was  a  pair  of 
virginals  in  it.  Having  seen  as  much  as  I  could 
now,  I  away  to  Whitehall  by  appointment,  and 
there  walked  to  St.  James's  Park,  and  there  met 
my  wife  and  Creed,  and  Wood  and  his  wife ; 
and  walked  to  my  boat,  and  there  upon  the  water 
again,  and  to  the  fire  up  and  down,  it  still  increas- 


140  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

ing,  and  the  wind  great.  So  near  the  fire  as  we 
could  for  smoke ;  and  all  over  the  Thames,  with 
one's  face  in  the  wind,  you  were  almost  burned 
with  a  shower  of  fire-drops.  This  is  very  true ; 
so  as  houses  were  burned  by  these  drops  and 
flakes  of  fire,  three  or  four,  nay,  five  or  six  houses, 
one  from  another.  When  we  could  endure  no 
more  upon  the  water,  we  went  to  a  little  ale-house 
on  the  Bankside,  over  against  the  Three  Cranes, 
and  there  stayed  till  it  was  dark  almost,  and  saw  the 
fire  grow ;  and  as  it  grew  darker,  it  appeared  more 
and  more,  and  in  corners  and  upon  steeples,  and 
between  churches  and  houses,  as  far  as  we  could 
see  up  the  hill  of  the  city,  in  a  most  horrid,  mali- 
cious, bloody  flame,  not  like  the  fine  flame  of  an 
ordinary  fire.  We  stayed  till,  it  being  darkish,  we 
saw  the  fire  as.  only  one  entire  arch  of  fire  from 
this  to  the  other  side  the  bridge,  and  in  a  bow  up 
the  hill  for  an  arch  of  above  a  mile  long ;  it  made 
me  weep  to  see  it.  The  churches,  houses,  and  all 
on  fire,  and  flaming  at  once ;  and  a  horrid  noise 
the  flames  made,  and  the  cracking  of  houses  at 
their  ruin.  So  home  with  a  sad  heart,  and  there 
find  everybody  discoursing  and  lamenting  the  fire ; 
and  poor  Tom  Hater  come  with  some  few  of  his 
goods  saved  out  of  his  house,  which  was  burned 
upon  Fish  Street  Hill.  I  invited  him  to  lie  at  my 
house,  and  did  receive  his  goods,  but  was  deceived 
in  his  lying  there,  the  news  coming  every  moment 
of  the  growth  of  the  fire ;  so  as  we  were  forced  to 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  141 

begin  to  pack  up  our  own  goods,  and  prepare  for 
their  removal ;  and  did  by  moonshine  (it  being 
brave,  dry,  and  moonshine,  and  warm  weather) 
carry  much  of  my  goods  into  the  garden  ;  and  Mr. 
Hater  and  I  did  remove  my  money  and  iron  chests 
into  my  cellar,  as  thinking  that  the  safest  place ; 
and  got  my  bags  of  gold  into  my  office,  ready  to 
carry  away,  and  my  chief  papers  of  accounts  also 
there,  and  my  tallies  in  a  box  by  themselves. 

"  September  jd.  About  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  my  Lady  Batten  sent  me  a  cart  to  carry 
away  all  my  money,  and  plate,  and  best  things,  to 
Sir  W.  Rider's,  at  Bethnal  Green  ;  which  I  did, 
riding  myself  in  my  nightgown  in  the  cart ;  and 
Lord !  to  see  how  the  streets  and  the  highways 
are  crowded  with  people  running  and  riding,  and 
getting  of  carts  at  any  rate  to  fetch  away  things." 

On  the  same  day  the  pious  Evelyn  inserts  in  his 
"  Diary  : "  "  September  jd.  I  had  public  prayers  at 
home.  The  fire  continuing,  after  dinner  I  took 
coach  with  my  wife  and  son,  and  went  to  the 
Bankside  in  Southwark,  where  we  beheld  the  dis- 
mal spectacle,  the  whole  city  in  dreadful  flames 
near  the  waterside.  All  the  houses  from  the 
bridge,  all  Thames  Street,  and  upwards  toward 
Cheapside,  down  to  the  Three  Cranes,  were  now 
consumed  ;  and  so  returned,  exceeding  astonished 
what  would  become  of  the  rest,  the  fire  having 
continued  all  this  night  (if  I  may  call  that  night 
which  was  as  light  as  day  for  ten  miles  round 


142  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

about,  after  a  dreadful  manner),  when  conspiring 
with  a  fierce  eastern  wind  in  a  very  dry  season.  I 
went  on  foot  to  the  same  place,  and  saw  the  whole 
south  part  of  the  city  burning,  from  Cheapside  to 
the  Thames,  and  all  along  Cornhill  (for  it  likewise 
kindled  back  against  the  wind,  as  well  as  forward), 
Tower  Street,  Fenchurch  Street,  Gracechurch 
Street,  and  so  along  to  Baynard's  Castle,  and  was 
now  taking  hold  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  to  which  the 
scaffolds  contributed  exceedingly.  The  conflagra- 
tion was  so  universal,  and  the  people  so  astonished, 
that  from  the  beginning,  I  know  not  by  what  de- 
spondency or  fate,  they  hardly  stirred  to  quench 
it ;  so  that  there  was  nothing  heard  or  seen  but 
crying  out  and  lamentation,  running  about  like  dis- 
tracted creatures,  without  at  all  attempting  to  save 
even  their  goods,  such  a  strange  consternation 
there  was  upon  them ;  so  as  it  burned,  both  in 
breadth  and  length,  the  churches,  public  halls, 
Exchange,  hospitals,  monuments,  and  ornaments  ; 
leaping  after  a  prodigious  manner  from  house  to 
house,  and  street  to  street,  at  great  distances  one 
from  the  other ;  for  the  heat,  with  a  long  set  of 
fair  and  warm  weather,  had  even  ignited  the  air, 
and  prepared  the  materials  to  conceive  the  fire, 
which  devoured,  after  an  incredible  manner,  houses, 
furniture,  and  everything.  Here  we  saw  the 
Thames  covered  with  goods  floating ;  all  the 
barges  and  boats  laden  with  what  some  had  time 
and  courage  to  save  ;  the  carts,  etc.,  carrying  them 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  143 

out  to  the  fields,  which  for  many  miles  were  strewed 
with  moveables  of  all  sorts,  and  tents  erecting  to 
shelter  both  people  and  what  goods  they  could  get 
away.  Oh,  the  miserable  and  calamitous  specta- 
cle !  such  as  haply  the  world  had  not  seen  since 
the  foundation  of  it,  nor  to  be  outdone  till  the  uni- 
versal conflagration  thereof.  All  the  sky  was  of 
a  fiery  aspect,  like  the  top  of  a  burning  oven,  and 
the  light  seen  above  forty  miles  round  about  for 
many  nights.  God  grant  mine  eyes  may  never 
behold  the  like,  which  now  saw  above  ten  thou- 
sand houses  all  in  one  flame.  The  noise,  and 
cracking  and  thunder  of  the  impetuous  flames  ; 
the  shrieking  of  women  and  children ;  the  hurry- 
ing of  people ;  the  fall  of  towers,  houses,  and 
churches,  was  like  an  hideous  storm  ;  and  the  air 
all  about  so  hot  and  inflamed,  that  at  last  one  was 
not  able  to  approach  it,  so  that  they  were  forced 
to  stand  still,  and  let  the  flames  burn  on,  which 
they  did  for  near  two  miles  in  length,  and  one  in 
breadth.  The  clouds,  also,  of  smoke  were  dismal, 
and  reached,  upon  computation,  near  fifty-six  miles 
in  length.  Thus  I  left  it  this  afternoon  burning, 
a  resemblance  of  Sodom,  or  the  last  day.  It  forci- 
bly called  to  my  mind  that  passage,  non  enim  hie 
habemus  stabilem  cimtatem  ;  the  ruins  resembling 
the  picture  of  Troy.  London  was,  but  is  no  more  ! 
Thus  I  returned  home  ! 

"  September  ^.th.     The  burning  still  rages,  and 
it  was  now  gotten  as  far  as  the  Inner  Temple  ;  all 


144  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Fleet  Street,  the  Old  Bailey,  Ludgate  Hill,  War- 
wick Lane,  Newgate,  Paul's  Chain,  Watling  Street, 
now  flaming,  and  most  of  it  reduced  to  ashes.  The 
stones  of  St.  Paul's  flew  like  granados,  the  melting 
lead  running  down  the  streets  in  a  stream,  and  the 
very  pavements  glowing  with  fiery  redness,  so  as 
no  horse  nor  man  was  able  to  tread  on  them  ;  and 
the  demolition  had  stopped  all  the  passages,  so 
that  no  help  could  be  applied.  The  eastern  wind 
still  more  impetuously  driving  the  flames  forward. 
Nothing  but  the  almighty  power  of  God  was  able 
to  stop  them,  for  vain  was  the  help  of  man." 

Let  us  return  to  Pepys,  and  his  no  less  interest- 
ing "  Diary."  On  the  4th  he  continues  :  "  This 
night  Mrs.  Turner  and  her  husband  supped  with 
my  wife  and  me  at  night  in  the  office,  upon  a 
shoulder  of  mutton  from  the  cook's,  without  any 
napkin  or  anything,  in  a  sad  manner,  but  were 
merry  ;  only  now  and  then,  walking  into  the  gar- 
den, saw  how  horribly  the  sky  looks,  all  on  a  fire 
in  the  night,  was  enough  to  put  us  out  of  our  wits  ; 
and,  indeed,  it  was  extremely  dreadful,  for  it  looks 
just  as  if  it  was  at  us,  and  the  whole  heaven  on 
fire.  I,  after  supper,  walked  in  the  dark  down  to 
Tower  Street,  and  there  saw  it  all  on  fire,  at  the 
Trinity  House  on  that  side,  and  the  Dolphin 
Tavern  on  this  side,  which  was  very  near  us,  and 
the  fire  [raging]  with  extraordinary  vehemence. 
Now  begins  the  practice  of  blowing  up  of  houses 
in  Tower  Street,  those  next  the  Tower,  which 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  145 

at  first  did  frighten  people  more  than  anything ; 
but  it  stopped  the  fire  where  it  was  done,  it  bring- 
ing down  the  houses  to  the  ground,  in  the  same 
places  they  stood,  and  then  it  was  easy  to  quench 
what  little  fire  was  in  it. 

"  September  $th.  I  lay  down  in  the  office  again 
upon  W.  Hewer's  quilt,  being  mighty  weary,  and 
sore  in  my  feet  with  going  till  I  was  hardly  able  to 
stand.  About  two  in  the  morning  my  wife  calls 
me  up,  and  tells  me  of  new  cries  of  fire,  it  being 
come  to  Barking  Church,  which  is  the  bottom  of 
our  lane.1  I  up,  and,  finding  it  so,  resolved  pres- 
ently to  take  her  away,  and  did,  and  took  my  gold, 
which  was  about  ,£2,350.  W.  Hewer  and  Jane 
down  by  Proundy's  boat  to  Woolwich ;  but  Lord  ! 
what  a  sad  sight  it  was  by  moonlight  to  see  the 
whole  city  almost  on  fire,  that  you  might  see  it 
plain  at  Woolwich  as  if  you  were  by  it.  There, 
when  I  came,  I  found  the  gates  shut,  but  no  guard 
kept  at  all,  which  troubled  me,  because  of  dis- 
courses now  begun  that  there  is  a  plot  in  it,  and 
that  the  French  had  done  it.  I  got  the  gates 
open,  and  to  Mr.  Shelden's,  where  I  locked  up  my 
gold,  and  charged  my  wife  and  W.  Hewer  never 
to  leave  the  room  without  one  of  them  in  it,  night 
nor  day.  So  back  again  ;  and,  whereas  I  expected 
to  have  seen  our  house  on  fire,  it  being  now  about 
seven  o'clock,  but  it  was  not.  But  to  the  fire,  and 
there  find  greater  hopes  than  I  expected ;  for  my 
1  Seething  Lane. 


146  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

confidence  of  finding  our  office  on  fire  was  such 
that  I  durst  not  ask  anybody  how  it  was  with  us, 
till  I  come  and  saw  it  was  not  burned.  But,  going 
to  the  fire,  I  find,  by  the  blowing  up  of  houses,  and 
the  great  help  given  by  the  workmen  out  of  the 
King's  Yard,  sent  up  by  Sir  W.  Penn  [from  Dept- 
ford],  there  is  a  good  stop  given  to  it,  as  well  at 
Mark  Lane  end  as  ours,  it  having  only  burned  the 
dial  of  Barking  Church,  and  part  of  the  porch,  and 
was  there  quenched.  I  up  to  the  top  of  Barking 
steeple,  and  there  saw  the  saddest  sight  of  desola- 
tion that  I  ever  saw ;  everywhere  great  fires,  oil- 
cellars,  and  brimstone,  and  other  things  burning. 
I  became  afraid  to  stay  there  long,  and  therefore 
down  again  as  fast  as  I  could,  the  fire  being  spread 
as  far  as  I  could  see  it  ;  and  to  Sir  W.  Penn's, 
and  there  ate  a  piece  of  cold  meat,  having  eaten 
nothing  since  Sunday  but  the  remains  of  Sunday's 
dinner.1  Here  I  met  with  Mr.  Young  and  Mr. 
Whistler ;  and  having  removed  all  my  things,  and 
received  good  hopes  that  the  fire  at  our  end  is 
stopped,  they  and  I  walked  into  the  town,  and 
found  Fenchurch  Street,  Gracechurch  Street,  and 
Lombard  Street  all  in  dust.  The  Exchange  a  sad 
sight ;  nothing  standing  there,  of  all  the  statues  or 
pillars,  but  Sir  Thomas  Gresham's  picture  in  the 
corner.  Into  Moorfields  (our  feet  ready  to  burn, 
walking  through  the  town  among  the  hot  coals), 

1  Pepys  seems  to  have  forgotten  the  "  shoulder  of  mutton 
from  the  cook's"  which  he  partook  of  the  day  before. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  147 

and  find  that  full  of  people,  and  poor  wretches 
carrying  their  goods  there,  and  everybody  keeping 
his  goods  together  by  themselves ;  and  a  great 
blessing  it  is  to  them,  that  it  is  fair  weather  for 
them  to  keep  abroad  night  and  day.  Drank  there, 
and  paid  twopence  for  a  plain  penny  loaf.  Thence 
homeward,  having  passed  through  Cheapside  and 
Newgate  market,  all  burned." 

On  the  following  day,  the  6th  of  September, 
the  fire  had  lost  much  of  its  fury,  and  by  the  /th 
it  was  almost  entirely  subdued.  The  spectacle, 
however,  of  ruin  and  desolation,  which  everywhere 
presented  itself,  increased  by  the  solemn  silence 
which  had  succeeded  to  the  crashing  of  timbers, 
the  falling  of  roofs,  and  the  shrieks  of  women  and 
children,  was  even  more  distressing  than  the  sight 
of  the  conflagration  itself.  "The  poor  inhabit- 
ants," writes  Evelyn,  "were  dispersed  about 
St.  George's  Fields  and  Moorfields,  as  far  as 
Highgate,  and  several  miles  in  circle ;  some  under 
tents,  some  under  miserable  huts  and  hovels ; 
many  without  a  rag  or  any  necessary  utensils,  bed 
or  board,  who,  from  delicateness,  riches,  and  easy 
accommodations,  in  stately  and  well-furnished 
houses,  were  now  reduced  to  extremest  misery  and 
poverty.  In  this  calamitous  condition,  I  returned 
with  a  sad  heart  to  my  house,  blessing  and  adoring 
the  distinguishing  mercy  of  God  to  me  and  mine, 
who,  in  the  midst  all  this  ruin,  was  like  Lot,  in 
my  little  Zoar,  safe  and  sound." 


148  LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

How  mournful  and  impressive  is  Evelyn's  sub- 
sequent account  of  his  ramble  through  the  streets 
of  the  ruined  city  ! 

"  September  "jth.  I  went  this  morning  on  foot 
from  Whitehall  as  far  as  London  Bridge,  through 
the  late  Fleet  Street,  Ludgate  Hill,  by  St.  Paul's, 
Cheapside,  Exchange,  Bishopsgate,  Aldersgate,  and 
out  to  Moorfields ;  thence  through  Cornhill,  with 
extraordinary  difficulty  clambering  over  heaps  of 
yet  smoking  rubbish,  and  frequently  mistaking 
where  I  was.  The  ground  under  my  feet  was  so 
hot  that  it  even  burnt  the  soles  of  my  shoes.  In 
the  meantime,  his  Majesty  got  to  the  Tower  by 
water,  to  demolish  the  houses  about  the  Graff, 
which,  being  built  entirely  about  it,  had  they  taken 
fire,  and  attacked  the  White  Tower,  where  the 
magazine  of  powder  lay,  would  undoubtedly  not 
only  have  beaten  down  and  destroyed  all  the 
bridge,  but  sunk  and  torn  the  vessels  in  the  river, 
and  rendered  the  demolition  beyond  all  expres- 
sion, for  several  miles  about  the  country. 

"  On  my  return,  I  was  infinitely  concerned  to 
find  that  goodly  church,  St.  Paul's,  now  a  sad  ruin, 
and  that  beautiful  portico  (for  structure  compa- 
rable to  any  in  Europe,  as  not  long  before  repaired 
by  the  late  king)  now  rent  in  pieces ;  flakes  of 
vast  stone  split  asunder,  and  nothing  remaining 
entire  but  the  inscription  in  the  architrave,  show- 
ing by  whom  it  was  built,  which  had  not  one  letter 
of  it  defaced.  It  was  astonishing  to  see  what 


LONDON   AND   ITS    CELEBRITIES.  149 

immense  stones  the  heat  had  in  a  manner  cal- 
cined ;  so  that  all  the  ornaments,  columns,  friezes, 
capitals,  and  projectures  of  massive  Portland  stone 
flew  off,  even  to  the  very  roof ;  where  a  sheet  of 
lead,  covering  a  great  space  (no  less  than  six  acres 
by  measure),  was  totally  melted.  The  ruins  of 
the  vaulted  roof  falling,  broke  into  St.  Faith's, 
which  being  filled  with  the  magazines  of  books 
belonging  to  the  stationers,  and  carried  thither  for 
safety,  they  were  all  consumed,  burning  for  a 
week  following !  It  is  also  observable  that  the 
lead  over  the  altar  at  the  east  end  was  untouched, 
and  among  the  diverse  monuments,  the  body  of 
one  bishop  remained  entire.  Thus  lay  in  ashes 
that  most  venerable  church,  one  of  the  most 
ancient  pieces  of  early  piety  in  the  Christian 
world,  besides  near  one  hundred  more.  The  lead, 
iron  work,  bells,  plate,  etc.,  melted  ;  the  exquisitely 
wrought  Mercers'  Chapel,  the  sumptuous  Ex- 
change ;  the  august  fabric  of  Christ's  Church ; 
all  the  rest  of  the  Companies'  Halls;  splendid 
buildings,  arches,  entries,  all  in  dust ;  the  foun- 
tains dried  up  and  ruined,  whilst  the  very  waters 
remained  boiling ;  the  voragos  of  subterranean, 
cellars,  wells,  and  dungeons,  formerly  warehouses, 
still  burning  in  stench,  and  dark  clouds  of  smoke ; 
so  that  in  five  or  six  miles  traversing  about,  I 
did  not  see  one  load  of  timber  unconsumed,  nor 
many  stones  but  what  were  calcined  white  as 
snow. 


150  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

"The  people,  who  now  walked  about  the  ruins, 
appeared  like  men  in  some  dismal  desert,  or  rather 
in  some  great  city  laid  waste  by  a  cruel  enemy,  to 
which  was  added  the  stench  that  came  from  some 
poor  creatures'  bodies,  beds,  and  other  combustible 
goods.  Sir  Thomas  Gresham's  statue,  though 
fallen  from  its  niche  in  the  Royal  Exchange,  re- 
mained entire,  when  all  those  of  the  kings  since 
the  Conquest  were  broken  to  pieces ;  also  the 
standard  in  Cornhill,  and  Queen  Elizabeth's  effi- 
gies, with  some  arms  on  Ludgate,  continued  with 
but  little  detriment ;  whilst  the  vast  iron  chains  of 
the  city  streets,  hinges,  bars,  and  gates  of  prisons, 
were  many  of  them  melted  and  reduced  to  cinders 
by  the  vehement  heat.  Nor  was  I  yet  able  to 
pass  through  any  of  the  narrower  streets,  but  kept 
the  widest.  The  ground  and  air,  smoke  and  fiery 
vapour,  continued  so  intense,  that  my  hair  was 
almost  singed,  and  my  feet  insufferably  surbated. 
The  by-lanes  and  narrower  streets  were  quite  filled 
up  with  rubbish,  nor  could  one  have  possibly 
known  where  he  was,  but  by  the  ruins  of  some 
church  or  hall  that  had  some  remarkable  tower  or 
pinnacle  remaining.  I  then  went  toward  Islington 
and  Highgate,  where  one  might  have  seen  two 
hundred  thousand  people,  of  all  ranks  and  degrees, 
dispersed  and  lying  along  by  their  heaps  of  what 
they  could  save  from  the  fire,  deploring  their  loss ; 
and  though  ready  to  perish  for  hunger  and  desti- 
tution, yet  not  asking  one  penny  for  relief,  which 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  151 

to  me  appeared  a  stranger  sight  than  any  I  had 
yet  beheld.  His  Majesty  and  Council,  indeed, 
took  all  imaginable  care  for  their  relief,  by  procla- 
mation for  the  country  to  come  in,  and  refresh 
them  with  provisions." 

The  manner  in  which  the  fire  of  London  origi- 
nated is  still  a  mystery.  The  person  most  likely 
to  throw  a  light  on  the  subject  was  Farryner,  the 
baker,  in  whose  house  in  Pudding  Lane  it  broke 
out.  When  examined,  however,  before  a  com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons,  all  he  could 
state  was,  that,  according  to  his  usual  custom,  he 
had  visited  every  part  of  his  house  at  twelve 
o'clock  at  night,  at  which  hour  everything  ap- 
peared to  be  in  perfect  security.  Only  in  one  of 
the  grates,  he  affirmed,  was  there  any  fire,  which 
he  raked  out,  and  as  the  room  was  paved  with 
bricks,  he  considered  it  utterly  impossible  that  the 
conflagration  could  have  been  caused  by  the 
smouldering  embers. 

Prompted  by  rage  and  bigotry,  general  opinion 
attributed  the  fire  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  though 
for  what  purpose  they  should  have  been  the  incen- 
diaries does  not  appear.  The  strictest  possible 
scrutiny  was  subsequently  carried  on  by  a  parlia- 
mentary committee,  without  in  any  degree  impli- 
cating them ;  and  yet,  in  deference  to  popular 
prejudice,  the  government,  after  a  lapse  of  fifteen 
years,  most  unfairly  permitted  the  following  in- 
scription to  be  engraved  on  the  monument : 


152  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

"  This  pillar  was  set  up  in  perpetual  remembrance  of 
that  most  dreadful  burning  of  this  Protestant  city,  begun 
and  carried  on  by  the  treachery  and  malice  of  the  Popish 
faction,  in  the  beginning  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord,  1666,  in  order  to  the  carrying  on  their  horrid  plot  for 
extirpating  the  Protestant  religion,  and  Old  English  liberty, 
and  the  introducing  Popery  and  Slavery." 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  it  is  to  the 
calumny  contained  in  this  inscription  that  Pope, 
himself  a  Roman  Catholic,  alludes  in  the  well- 
known  couplet  which  we  have  already  quoted. 

At  the  accession  of  James  the  Second,  the 
obnoxious  inscription  was  by  his  orders  effaced. 
King  William,  however,  permitted  it  to  be  restored 
after  the  Revolution,  but  it  now  no  longer  dis- 
graces the  noble  column,  having  been  erased  by 
an  act  of  common  council,  on  the  26th  January, 
1831. 

The  total  damage  which  the  city  sustained  by 
the  fire  was  computed  at  no  less  than  £10,716,- 
ooo.  Fearful,  however,  as  was  the  calamity,  it 
proved  in  the  end  a  blessing.  For  centuries  past, 
the  plague  had  continued  lurking  in  the  obscure  and 
filthy  allies  of  the  city,  periodically  bursting  forth 
from  its  lurking-places,  and  committing  the  most 
frightful  ravages  ;  and  accordingly,  to  obviate  this 
evil,  the  new  streets  were  made  wider,  and  the  in- 
habitants admitted  to  the  blessings  of  light  and  air. 
The  consequence  has  been  the  total  disappearance 
of  the  plague  in  London  since  the  great  fire. 


LONDON   AND   ITS    CELEBRITIES.  153 

A  few  words  remain  to  be  said  respecting  the 
monument  on  Fish  Street  Hill.  This  fine  column, 
which  is  of  the  Doric  order,  measures  202  feet  in 
height,  being  twenty-four  feet  higher  than  Tra- 
jan's Pillar  at  Rome.  It  was  commenced  by 
Sir  Christopher  Wren  in  1671,  and  completed  in 
1677,  at  an  expense  of  ,£13,700.  The  staircase  in 
the  interior  consists  of  345  steps.  On  the  west  side 
of  the  pedestal  is  a  bas-relief,  —  the  work  of  Caius 
Gabriel  Gibber,  the  father  of  the  poet,  —  in  which 
the  principal  figure  is  a  female,  representing  the 
city  of  London,  lamenting  over  a  heap  of  ruins. 
Behind  her  is  Time,  gradually  raising  her  up ;  and 
at  her  side  is  the  figure  of  Providence,  who  gently 
touches  her  with  one  hand,  while  with  a  winged 
sceptre  in  the  other  she  directs  her  attention  to 
two  goddesses  in  the  clouds,  —  one  holding  a  cor- 
nucopia, the  emblem  of  plenty ;  the  other  holding 
a  branch  of  the  palm-tree,  the  emblem  of  peace. 
At  her  feet  is  a  beehive,  denoting  that  industry  is 
the  source  of  wealth,  and  that  the  greatest  mis- 
fortunes may  be  overcome  by  perseverance  and 
application.  In  another  part  is  a  view  of  the  city 
in  flames ;  the  inhabitants  being  represented  in 
great  consternation,  lifting  up  their  hands  to 
heaven  and  invoking  its  mercy.  On  a  raised  plat- 
form, opposite  to  the  burning  city,  stands  the 
figure  of  Charles  the  Second,  in  a  Roman  habit, 
with  a  truncheon  in  his  hand,  invoking  Liberty, 
Architecture,  and  Science  to  descend  to  the  aid  of 


154  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  city.  Behind  the  king  stands  his  brother,  the 
Duke  of  York,  holding  a  garland  in  one  hand  to 
crown  the  rising  city,  and  a  sword  in  the  other  for 
her  defence.  The  three  other  sides  of  the  base 
of  the  column  contain  Latin  inscriptions ;  the  one 
on  the  north  detailing  the  extent  and  particulars 
of  the  conflagration  ;  that  on  the  south  explaining 
the  measures  taken  under  the  auspices  of  Charles 
the  Second  for  rebuilding  and  rebeautifying  the 
city.  On  the  east  side  are  the  names  of  the  lord 
mayors  who  were  in  office  during  the  period  the 
column  was  in  course  of  erection.1 

The  compliments  paid  to  Charles,  both  in  the 
bas-relief  and  in  the  inscriptions,  are  not  greater 
than  he  deserved.  His  personal  exertions  during 
the  progress  of  the  conflagration,  and  the  interest 
which  he  subsequently  took  in  the  sufferings  of 
his  subjects,  were  certainly  highly  to  his  credit. 
Moreover,  had  the  plans  been  adopted  for  rebuild- 
ing the  city  which  emanated  from  the  genius  of 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,  and  which  were  warmly 
supported  by  his  royal  master,  London  would 
unquestionably  have  been  the  most  stately  city  in 

1 "  Six  persons  have  thrown  themselves  off  the  monument : 
William  Green,  a  weaver,  June  25,  1750;  Thomas  Cradock,  a 
baker,  July  7,  1788;  Lyon  Levi,  a  Jew,  Jan.  18,  1810;  a  girl 
named  Moyes,  the  daughter  of  a  baker  in  Heminge's  Row,  Sept. 
ir,  1839;  a  boy  named  Hawes,  Oct.  18,  1839;  and  a  girl  of  the 
age  of  seventeen,  in  August,  1842.  This  kind  of  death  becoming 
popular,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  encage  the  monument  as  we 
now  see  it." 


Sir  Christopher  Wren. 

I'hoto-elching  after  the  painting  by  Kneller. 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  155 

the  world.  Unfortunately,  however,  space  was 
of  too  much  value,  property  too  much  divided, 
and  people  in  too  great  a  hurry  to  repair  past 
losses  by  future  profits,  to  admit  of  the  realisation 
of  these  magnificent  projects. 

It  had  been  the  intention  of  Sir  Christopher 
Wren  to  surmount  the  monument  with  a  statue 
of  Charles  the  Second,  and  when  he  laid  his 
original  design  before  the  king  the  column  Was 
thus  ornamented.  Charles,  however,  declined  the 
honour.  "Not,"  says  Wren,  "that  his  Majesty 
disliked  a  statue  ;  but  he  was  pleased  to  think  a 
large  ball  of  metal,  gilt,  would  be  more  agreeable." 
Accordingly  the  present  gilded  vase  of  flames  was 
substituted  for  the  proposed  statue.  The  Latin 
inscriptions  on  the  monument  were  written  by 
Doctor  Gale,  Dean  of  York. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FISH   STREET   HILL,   EASTCHEAP,   GRACECHURCH 
STREET,  ST.  OLAVE's,  HART  STREET. 

King's  Head  Tavern  —  St.  Magnus  the  Martyr  —  Pudding 
Lane  —  Boar's  Head  Tavern  —  Sir  John  Falstaff  —  Lom- 
bard Merchants — Earl  of  Suffolk  —  Fenchurch  Street  — 
Queen  Elizabeth  —  St.  Olave's  Church  —  Sir  John  Mennis  — 
Monument  to  Pepys's  Wife  —  Doctor  Mills  —  Whittington's 
Residence  —  Lady  Fanshawe. 

IN  addition  to  the  connection  of  Fish  Street 
Hill  with  the  great  fire,  many  interesting  associa- 
tions are  attached  to  the  spot.  Here  it  is  that 
Shakespeare  makes  Jack  Cade  exclaim,  at  the  head 
of  his  rabble  followers  : 

"  Up  Fish  Street!  down  Saint  Magnus's  corner!  kill  and 
knock  down !  throw  them  into  Thames  !  What  noise  is  this 
I  hear?  Dare  any  be  so  bold  to  sound  retreat  or  parley 
when  I  command  them  kill !  "  —  King  Henry  VI.  Part  II. 
Act  iv.  Sc.  8. 

In  the  fourteenth  century,  —  when  the  Kings  of 
England  held  their  court  in  the  Tower,  and  when 
the  site  of  the  present  populous  thoroughfares 
constituted  the  court  district  of  the  metropolis,  — 
we  find  Edward  the  Black  Prince  residing  on  Fish 
156 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  157 

Street  Hill.  The  house,  or  inn,  of  the  Black 
Prince,  which  was  of  stone  and  of  considerable 
size,  stood  at  the  end  of  Crooked  Lane,  facing 
Monument  Yard.  In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  it 
had  been  converted  into  an  inn,  or  hostelry,  and 
was  known  by  the  sign  of  the  Black  Bell. 

King's  Head  Court,  within  a  few  paces  of  the 
monument,  derives  its  name  from  the  King's  Head 
Tavern,  rendered  classical  by  Ben  Jonson,  and 
famous  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  for  its  excellent 
wine  and  noisy  revels. 

Let  us  not  omit  to  mention  that,  in  the  days  of 
his  extreme  distress,  Oliver  Goldsmith  filled  the 
situation  of  journeyman  to  a  chemist  of  the  name 
of  Jacob,  at  the  corner  of  Monument  Yard,  Fish 
Street  Hill.  In  this  situation  he  was  discovered 
by  his  old  college  friend,  Doctor  Sleigh,  who  re- 
lieved his  immediate  necessities,  and  enabled  him 
to  establish  himself  in  medical  practice  in  Bankside, 
Southwark. 

Close  to  Fish  Street  Hill  is  the  church  of  St. 
Magnus  the  Martyr,  standing  nearly  on  the  site  of 
the  old  parish  church,  which  was  destroyed  by  the 
great  fire  in  1666.  As  early  as  the  year  1302,  we 
find  a  chantry  founded  here  by  Hugh  Pourt,  Sheriff 
of  London,  and  Margaret  his  wife.  The  first  rector 
mentioned  by  Newcourt  is  Robert  de  S.  Albano, 
who  resigned  the  living  in  1323.  The  most  illus- 
trious name  connected  with  the  church  is  that  of 
Miles  Coverdale,  under  whose  direction  the  first 


1 58  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

complete  English  version  of  the  Bible  was  pub- 
lished, in  October,  1535.  The  body  of  the  present 
handsome  and  well-proportioned  church  was  built 
by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  in  1676,  the  steeple  hav- 
ing been  added  in  1705.  It  contains  no  monu- 
ments of  any  particular  interest  or  beauty.  In  the 
vestry-room,  however,  is  an  interesting  painting  of 
old  London  Bridge,  and  also  a  curious  drawing 
of  the  presentation  of  a  pair  of  colours  to  the 
military  association  of  Bridge  Ward.  The  altar- 
piece,  richly  carved  and  decorated,  is  considered 
one  of  the  handsomest  in  London,  and  the  lantern 
and  cupola  have  considerable  merit. 

Between  Fish  Street  Hill  and  Gracechurch 
Street,  diverging  to  the  right,  is  Eastcheap,  famous 
in  the  olden  time  for  those  scenes  of  jollity,  when 
"  the  cooks  cried  hot  ribs  of  beef  roasted,  pies  well 
baked,  and  other  victuals,  with  clattering  of  pewter, 
pots,  harp,  pipe,  and  sawtrie."  Close  by  is  Pud- 
ding Lane,1  descending  to  the  Thames,  anciently 
called  Rother,  or  Red-rose  Lane,  from  one  of  the 
houses  having  the  sign  of  a  red  rose,  but  which, 
doubtless,  received  its  more  modern  denomination 
from  its  vicinity  to  the  scenes  of  gormandising 
and  revelry  in  Eastcheap.  It  was  the  conviction 
of  the  Puritan  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  Lon- 

1  It  is  "  commonly  called  Pudding  Lane,  because  the  butchers 
of  Eastcheap  have  their  scalding-house  for  hogs  there,  and  their 
puddings,  with  other  filth  of  beasts,  are  voided  down  that  way 
to  their  dung-boats  on  the  Thames." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  159 

don  that  the  fire  of  London  was  a  direct  manifes- 
tation of  the  anger  of  Heaven,  inflicted  as  a 
punishment  for  the  sins  and  gluttony  of  the  age ; 
this  conviction  being  not  a  little  strengthened  by 
the  singular  coincidence  of  the  fire  having  com- 
menced in  Pudding  Lane  and  ended  in  Pye  Lane, 
near  Smithfield.  On  a  house  at  the  latter  place, 
at  the  corner  of  Giltspur  Street,  and  what  is  now 
Cock  Lane,  is  still  to  be  seen  the  figure  of  a 
naked  boy  with  his  arms  folded  upon  his  chest, 
which  formerly  had  an  inscription  attributing  the 
fire  of  London  to  the  sin  of  gluttony. 

There  is  perhaps  no  spot  in  London  which  re- 
calls so  vividly  to  our  imaginations  the  romance 
of  the  olden  time  as  Eastcheap.  Who  is  there 
who  has  ever  strolled  along  this  classic  ground 
without  having  pictured  to  himself  the  Boar's 
Head  Tavern,  such  as  when  it  resounded  to  the 
jokes  and  merriment  of  Sir  John  Falstaff  and  his 
boon  companions  ?  Who  is  there  who  has  not 
peopled  it  in  imagination  with  Bardolph,  and  his 
"malmsey  nose;"  with  "ancient  Pistol,"  and  kind- 
hearted  Dame  Quickly ;  with  the  jokes  of  frolic 
Prince  Hal ;  and  lastly,  with  the  dying  scene  of 
the  jovial  old  knight,  where  "he  made  a  finer  end, 
and  went  away,  an  it  had  been  any  christom  child ; 
fumbling  with  the  sheets,  and  playing  with  flowers, 
and  smiling  upon  his  fingers'  ends,  and  babbling 
of  green  fields?"  "The  character  of  old  Fal- 
staff," says  Goldsmith,  in  one  of  his  charming 


160  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

essays,  "  even  with  his  faults,  gives  me  more  con- 
solation than  the  most  studied  efforts  of  wisdom : 
I  here  behold  an  agreeable  old  fellow,  forgetting 
age,  and  showing  me  the  way  to  be  young  at  sixty- 
five.  Sure  I  am  well  able  to  be  as  merry,  though 
not  so  comical  as  he.  Is  it  not  in  my  power  to 
have,  though  not  so  much  wit,  at  least  as  much 
vivacity  ?  Age,  care,  wisdom,  reflection,  begone  ! 
I  give  you  to  the  winds.  Let's  have  t'other  bot- 
tle ;  here's  to  the  memory  of  Shakespeare,  Falstaff, 
and  all  the  merry  men  of  Eastcheap !  Such  were 
the  reflections  that  naturally  arose  while  I  sat  at 
the  Boar's  Head  Tavern,  still  kept  at  Eastcheap. 
Here,  by  a  pleasant  fire,  in  the  very  room  where 
old  Sir  John  Falstaff  cracked  his  jokes,  in  the  very 
chair  which  was  sometimes  honoured  by  Prince 
Henry,  and  sometimes  polluted  by  his  immoral 
merry  companions,  I  sat  and  ruminated  on  the 
follies  of  youth ;  wished  to  be  young  again,  but 
was  resolved  to  make  the  best  of  life  while  it 
lasted." 

The  Boar's  Head  of  Shakespeare,  which  stood 
in  Great  Eastcheap,  perished  in  the  fire  of  London. 
A  tavern  bearing  the  same  name  was  erected  on 
its  site,  having  in  front  of  it  a  boar's  head  cut  in 
stone,  with  the  date  1688.  It  was  taken  down 
in  1831,  to  make  room  for  the  approaches  to  New 
London  Bridge.  The  object  which  most  nearly 
marks  the  site  of  the  old  tavern  is  the  statue  of 
King  William  the  Fourth. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  161 

Gracechurch  Street,  orginally  styled  Grasse 
Street,  or  Grassechurch  Street,  derives  its  name 
from  an  herb-market  which  was  anciently  held  on 
its  site.  It  was  corrupted  in  the  first  instance 
into  Gracious  Street,  and  thence  into  Gracechurch 
Street.  In  a  poem  styled  the  "  Nine  Worthies  of 
London,"  printed  in  black  letter,  in  1592,  we  find : 

"  In  Gracious  Street,  there  was  I  bound  to  serve, 
My  master's  name  hight  Stodie  in  his  time." 

In  White  Hart  Court,  the  entrance  to  which  is 
all  that  is  now  left,  died,  in  1690,  the  celebrated 
George  Fox,  the  father  of  the  Quakers ;  and  at 
his  lodgings  in  Nag's  Head  Court,  now  Lombard 
Street,  leading  out  of  Gracechurch  Street  into 
Lombard  Street,  died,  in  1737,  Matthew  Green, 
the  poet,  the  well-known  author  of  "The  Spleen." 

To  the  west  of  Gracechurch  Street  is  Lombard 
Street.  This  street  derives  its  name  from  the 
opulent  money-lenders,  or  usurers,  who  came  out  of 
Lombardy  in  1274,  and  who  carried  on  their  money 
transactions  in  this  street  from  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  First  to  that  of  Elizabeth.  Here,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Birchin  Lane,  stood  the  mansion  of  that 
powerful  race,  the  De  la  Poles,  Earls  of  Pembroke 
and  Dukes  of  Suffolk.  The  founder  of  this  family 
was  Sir  William  de  la  Pole,  a  merchant  at  Kings- 
ton-upon-Hull,  who,  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  reign 
of  Edward  the  Third,  contracted  to  supply  the 
army  in  Scotland  with  wine,  salt,  and  other  pro- 


1 62  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

visions.  Three  years  afterward,  when  Edward  was 
in  urgent  need  of  money  for  the  support  of  his 
army,  we  find  the  wealthy  merchant  advancing 
him  the  sum  of  a  thousand  pounds  in  gold,  for 
which  important  service  the  king  constituted  him 
second  baron  of  the  exchequer,  advanced  him  to 
the  rank  of  knight  banneret,  and  conferred  on  him 
a  grant  out  of  the  customs  of  Hull,  for  the  better 
support  of  his  new  dignity.  He  was  ancestor  of 
William  de  la  Pole,  Earl  of  Suffolk,  the  prime 
minister  and  declared  favourite  of  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  now  principally  remembered  from  the  dis- 
comfiture he  received  from  Joan  d'Arc  beneath  the 
walls  of  Orleans,  and  whose  melancholy  fate  has 
been  before  referred  to.  His  honours  were  in- 
herited by  his  eldest  son,  John,  the  fifth  earl,  who 
was  created  Duke  of  Suffolk  in  1463,  and  who 
married  the  Lady  Elizabeth  Plantagenet,  sister  of 
King  Edward  the  Fourth.  The  last  of  this  gallant 
race,  in  the  male  line,  was  Richard  de  la  Pole, 
third  duke,  who,  after  performing  acts  of  heroic 
valour,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Pavia,  in  1524. 
In  Lombard  Street,  at  the  sign  of  the  Grass- 
hopper, lived  the  princely  merchant,  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham,  the  founder  of  Gresham  College  and 
of  the  Royal  Exchange.  The  site  (No.  68)  is 
now  occupied  by  a  banking  establishment.  In  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  Second  we  find  the  Grass- 
hopper, the  sign  of  another  wealthy  goldsmith, 
Sir  Charles  Buncombe,  the  founder  of  the  Fever- 


LONDON  AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  163 

sham  family,  and  the  purchaser  of  Helmsley,  in 
Yorkshire,  the  princely  seat  of  George  Villiers, 
second  Duke  of  Buckingham. 

"  Helmsley,  once  proud  Buckingham's  delight, 
Yields  to  a  scrivener  and  a  city  knight." 

Here  also  resided  Sir  Robert  Viner,  Lord  Mayor 
of  London  in  1675,  and  apparently  an  especial 
favourite  with  Charles  the  Second.  The  "merry 
monarch"  once  did  him  the  honour  to  dine  with 
him  during  his  mayoralty,  when,  having  remained 
as  long  as  was  agreeable  to  himself,  he  rose  to 
depart.  The  citizen,  however,  having  indulged 
rather  freely  in  his  own  wines,  caught  hold  of  the 
king,  and  declared  with  an  oath  that  he  should 
remain  and  drink  another  bottle.  Charles  looked 
good-humouredly  at  him  over  his  shoulder,  and 
repeating,  with  a  smile,  a  line  of  an  old  song : 

"  He  that's  drunk  is  as  great  as  a  king," 

sat  down  again,  and  remained  as  long  as  his  host 
wished. 

It  was  in  Lombard  Street,  on  the  22d  of  May, 
1688,  that  Pope,  the  poet,  first  saw  the  light. 
Spence  was  informed  by  Nathaniel  Hooke,  the 
historian,  that  it  was  "  at  the  house  which  is  now 
Mr.  Morgan's,  an  apothecary,"  but  it  is  impossi- 
ble now  to  ascertain  its  site.  Thomas  Guy,  the 
founder  of  Guy's  Hospital,  was  a  bookseller  in 
Lombard  Street. 


164  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

The  church  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth,  Lombard 
Street,  has  been  thought  to  stand  on  the  site  of 
a  temple  dedicated  to  the  goddess  of  concord; 
and  the  remains  of  Roman  antiquity,  which  have 
from  time  to  time  been  discovered  near  the  spot, 
have  added  some  slight  "weight  to  the  supposition. 
The  origin  of  the  name  escaped  the  researches  of 
Stow.  The  old  edifice  having  been  destroyed  by 
the  fire  of  London,  the  present  church  was  rebuilt 
in  1716,  by  Nicholas  Hawksmoor,  the  pupil  of  Sir 
Christopher  Wren.  The  originality  and  boldness 
of  its  exterior,  the  richness  and  elegance  of  its 
internal  decorations,  the  graceful  arrangement  of 
the  columns,  and  the  fine  workmanship  of  the 
pulpit  and  sounding-board,  have  been  deservedly 
admired.  There  is  a  tablet  in  the  church  to  the 
memory  of  the  Rev.  John  Newton,  Rector  of 
Olney,  in  Buckinghamshire,  the  friend  of  Cowper, 
and  his  associate  in  the  composition  of  the  Olney 
hymns.  The  inscription  on  his  monument,  written 
by  himself,  describes  him  as  having  been  "  once  an 
infidel  and  libertine,  a  servant  of  slaves  in  Africa, 
but  by  the  rich  mercy  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  preserved,  restored,  pardoned,  and 
appointed  to  preach  the  faith  he  had  long  laboured 
to  destroy."  Newton  had  been  brought  up  to  a 
seafaring  life,  and  in  early  youth  had  been  engaged 
in  the  slave-trade.  He  died  on  the  2ist  of  Decem- 
ber, 1807,  at  the  age  of  eighty-two,  having  been 
for  twenty-eight  years  rector  of  the  united  parishes 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  165 

of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth  and  St.  Mary  Woolchurch. 
His  remains  lie  in  a  vault  beneath  the  church. 

On  the  north  side  of  Lombard  Street  stands 
the  church  of  St.  Edmund  the  King,  dedicated  to 
the  Saxon  King  Edmund,  who  was  murdered  by  the 
Danes  in  870.  The  history  of  its  foundation,  like 
that  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth,  is  lost  in  antiquity. 
The  present  church,  remarkable  for  having  its  altar 
to  the  north,  was  erected  by  Wren  in  1690.  Not- 
withstanding its  extreme  simplicity  of  design,  the 
fine  proportious  of  the  interior,  as  well  as  the  pic- 
turesque effect  produced  by  its  richly  carved  pulpit, 
galleries,  and  pews,  all  of  dark  oak,  have  found  it 
many  admirers.  The  altar-piece  presents  some 
bold  carvings,  and  on  each  side  of  the  communion- 
table are  portraits  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  executed 
by  Etty  in  1833. 

Facing  the  east  end  of  Lombard  Street  is  Fen- 
church  Street,  so  called,  it  is  said,  from  the  fenny 
nature  of  the  ground  on  which  it  was  originally 
built ;  but  according  to  others,  from  the  fanum, 
or  hay,  which  was  sold  here.  Here  stood  Den- 
mark House,  the  residence,  in  the  reign  of  Philip 
and  Mary,  of  the  first  Russian  ambassador  who 
was  sent  to  this  country.  He  arrived  here  in 
1557,  shortly  after  the  formation  of  the  Russian 
Company ;  and  as  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the 
merchants  of  London  to  impress  the  mind  of 
the  barbarian  envoy  with  a  favourable  notion  of 
the  wealth  and  resources  of  England,  they  deter- 


1 66  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

mined  to  receive  him  with  great  state  and  splen- 
dour. Accordingly,  on  his  approach  to  London, 
they  met  him  at  Tottenham,  habited  in  velvet  and 
ornamented  with  chains  of  gold.  Lord  Montacute, 
at  the  head  of  the  queen's  pensioners,  received  him 
at  Islington,  and,  on  reaching  Smithfield,  he  was 
met  by  the  lord  mayor  and  aldermen,  habited  in 
their  scarlet  robes,  who  accompanied  him  on  horse- 
back to  his  residence,  then  "  Master  Dimmock's," 
in  Fenchurch  Street. 

The  church  of  St.  Margaret  Pattens,  Fenchurch 
Street,  derives  its  name  partly  from  having  been 
dedicated  to  St.  Margaret,  a  virgin  saint  of  Antioch, 
and  partly,  according  to  Stow,  "because  of  old 
time  pattens  were  usually  made  and  sold  "  in  the 
neighbourhood.  The  old  church  having  been  des- 
troyed by  the  great  fire,  the  present  edifice  was 
rebuilt  by  Wren  in  1687.  The  principal  object  of 
attraction  in  St.  Margaret's  is  the  altar-piece,  which 
displays  a  fine  painting,  representing  the  angels 
ministering  to  our  Saviour  in  the  garden.  The 
artist  is  said  to  be  Carlo  Maratti,  pupil  of  Andrea 
Sacchi.  About  the  altar,  too,  are  some  carvings 
of  flowers,  of  excellent  workmanship.  The  inde- 
fatigable antiquary,  Thomas  Birch,  lies  buried  in 
the  chancel  of  this  church.  "  My  desire  is,"  he 
says  in  his  will,  "  that  my  body  may  be  interred 
in  the  chancel  of  the  church  of  St.  Margaret  Pat- 
tens, of  which  I  have  been  now  rector  near  nine- 
teen years."  He  died  in  1765. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  167 

In  Fenchurch  Street  stood  Northumberland 
House,  the  residence,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
of  the  Percies,  Earls  of  Northumberland.  In 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh  its  fine  gardens 
were  converted  into  bowling-alleys,  "  common  to 
all  comers  for  their  money,  there  to  bowl  and 
hazard,"  and  the  other  parts  of  the  estate  into 
dicing-houses.  Northumberland  Alley,  on  the 
south  side  of  Fenchurch  Street,  points  out  nearly 
the  site  of  Northumberland  House. 

Pepys  writes,  on  the  loth  of  June,  1665  :  "To 
my  great  trouble,  hear  that  the  plague  is  come 
into  the  city  (though  it  hath  these  three  or  four 
weeks  since  its  beginning  been  wholly  out  of  the 
city) ;  but  where  should  it  begin  but  in  my  good 
friend  and  neighbour's,  Doctor  Burnett,  in  Fen- 
church Street ;  which,  in  both  points,  troubles  me 
mightily."  And  again  he  writes,  on  the  I  ith  :  "  I 
saw  poor  Doctor  Burnett's  door  shut ;  but  he  hath, 
I  hear,  gained  great  good-will  among  his  neigh- 
bours, for  he  discovered  it  himself  first,  and  caused 
himself  to  be  shut  up  of  his  own  accord,  which 
was  very  handsome." 

Running  from  Fenchurch  Street  into  Leadenhall 
Street  is  Billiter  Street,  corrupted  from  Belzetter 
Street,  the  name  probably  of  the  builder,  or  of 
some  former  owner  of  the  property. 

On  the  south  side  of  Fenchurch  Street  is  Minc- 
ing Lane,  so  called,  apparently,  from  the  ground 
on  which  it  stands  having  been  the  property  of 


1 68  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  Minchuns,  or  nuns  of  St.  Helen's,  in  Bishops- 
gate  Street.  Running  parallel  with  it  is  Mark  Lane, 
anciently  styled  Mart  Lane,  from  a  mart  or  fair 
having  been  held  on  the  spot.  On  the  west  side 
of  this  street,  near  Fenchurch  Street,  is  the  ancient 
church  of  Allhallows,  or  All-Saints  Staining.  It 
had  the  good  fortune  to  escape  the  ravages  of  the 
great  fire  of  1666,  but,  shortly  afterward,  a  large 
portion  of  it  having  fallen  into  decay,  it  was  re- 
stored at  a  considerable  expense  in  1675. 

According  to  Stow,  the  church  of  Allhallows 
Staining  derives  its  adjunctive  name  from  the 
Saxon  word  stane,  or  stone,  which  was  given  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  other  churches  in  London 
dedicated  to  All-Saints,  which  were  of  wood.  Sup- 
posing this  derivation  to  be  the  correct  one,  the 
original  edifice  must  have  been  of  great  antiquity. 
The  earliest  notice,  however,  which  we  discover  of 
there  having  been  a  place  of  worship  on  the  spot, 
is  in  1329,  when  one  Edward  Camel  was  the  cu- 
rate. Previously  to  the  committal  to  the  Tower  of 
the  Scottish  patriot,  Sir  William  Wallace,  he  was 
confined  in  a  house  in  the  parish  of  Allhallows 
Staining. 

A  tradition  exists,  that  when  the  Princess  Eliza- 
beth was  released  from  the  Tower  by  her  sister, 
Queen  Mary,  she  obtained  permission,  when  on 
her  way  to  Woodstock,  to  attend  divine  service 
in  the  church  of  Allhallows  Staining.  Having 
concluded  her  devotions,  she  adjourned,  it  is  said, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  169 

to  the  King's  Head  Tavern,  in  Fenchurch  Street, 
where  she  partook  of  a  substantial  meal,  consist- 
ing of  pork  and  pease.  This  royal  visit,  we  are 
told,  was  afterward  commemorated  by  certain  in- 
fluential persons  in  the  parish,  whose  descend- 
ants, till  within  the  last  forty  years,  continued  to 
celebrate  the  anniversary  of  the  accession  of  the 
virgin-queen  by  a  dinner  at  the  "King's  Head." 
In  the  coffee-room  are  still  preserved  a  metal  dish 
and  cover  which  are  said  to  have  been  used  by 
Elizabeth  on  the  occasion  of  her  visit,  as  also  an 
inscription  detailing  the  circumstances,  and  an  en- 
graved portrait  of  her  by  Holbein.  According  to 
another  account,  the  princess,  on  quitting  the 
church,  presented  the  clerk  with  a  handsome 
gratuity,  the  consequence  of  which  was  that  he 
annually  regaled  his  friends  with  a  dinner ;  a  fes- 
tival which  was  afterward  held  once  a  year  by 
successive  inhabitants  of  the  parish. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  in  this  small  parish 
no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  individu- 
als perished  by  the  great  plague  in  1665  ;  a  fright- 
ful mortality  when  we  consider  that  even  at  the 
present  time  the  population  of  the  parish  scarcely 
exceeds  six  hundred  persons.  Among  other  curi- 
ous entries  in  the  ancient  parish  books,  is  the  pay- 
ment of  a  sum  of  money  for  ringing  a  joy-peal  to 
celebrate  the  safe  return  of  James  the  Second  to 
London,  after  he  had  been  foiled  in  his  attempt 
to  fly  the  kingdom  on  the  approach  of  the  Prince 


170  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

of  Orange.  As  a  striking  evidence  of  the  fickle- 
ness of  popular  favour,  may  be  mentioned  a  second 
entry,  dated  only  two  days  afterward,  for  the  pay- 
ment of  a  similar  sum  to  the  ringers  for  celebrat- 
ing the  safe  arrival  of  the  invader  in  London.  The 
signatures  of  two  remarkable  men  appear  on  the 
parish  books  of  Allhallows  Staining.  The  one  is 
that  of  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel,  in  connection  with 
his  marriage ;  the  other,  that  of  Ireton,  who,  as  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  appears  to  have  married  cer- 
tain persons  under  the  new  marriage  act  of  the 
Puritans,  which  transformed  the  ceremony  from 
a  religious  into  a  civil  contract. 

Close  by,  in  Hart  Street,  at  the  west  end  of 
Crutched  Friars,  is  the  small  but  interesting 
church  of  St.  Olave,  dedicated  to  St.  Olave,  or 
Olaf,  a  Norwegian  saint  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Of  the  date  of  its  foundation  we  have  unfortunately 
no  record.  Certain  only  it  is  that  St.  Olave's  ex- 
isted as  a  parish  at  the  commencement  of  the  four- 
teenth, and  that  there  was  a  parish  church  here  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth,  century.  It  was 
repaired  at  a  considerable  cost  in  1633,  an^  again 
in  1823. 

In  addition  to  its  graceful  architecture,  and  the 
remains  of  antique  decoration  on  the  roof  of  its 
aisles,  St.  Olave's  contains  some  interesting  mon- 
uments and  brasses.  Among  others  may  be  men- 
tioned a  brass  plate,  at  the  east  end  of  the  north 
aisle,  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Morley,  clerk  of 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  171 

the  queen's  household  at  Deptford,  who  died  in 
15  16;  the  sculptured  figure  in  armour  of  Sir  John 
Radcliffe,  who  died  in  1568  ;  a  full-sized  figure  in 
armour,  kneeling  under  a  canopy,  inscribed  to 
Peter  Capponius,  and  bearing  the  date  1582;  and 
a  brass  plate,  at  the  east  end  of  the  south  aisle, 
to  the  memory  of  John  Orgene  and  Ellen,  his 
wife,  dated  in  1584.  Besides  these  there  are  the 
finely  sculptured  effigies,  lying  under  richly  painted 
alcoves,  of  two  brothers,  Paul  and  Andrew  Bayn- 
ing,  who  severally  died  in  1610  and  1616 ;  a  much 
admired  monument  of  Dr.  William  Turner,  author 
of  the  English  Herbal,  who  died  in  1614,  and  a 
sculptured  marble  figure  of  Sir  Andrew  Riccard, 
citizen  and  merchant  of  London,  who  died  in  1672. 
Not  the  least  remarkable  person  who  lies  buried 
in  the  church  of  St.  Olave's,  Hart  Street,  is  the 
poetic  Admiral  Sir  John  Mennes.  In  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  First  he  was  made  comptroller  of  the 
navy  office,  and  received  the  honour  of  knighthood. 
About  this  time  he  had  the  command  of  a  ship  of 
war,  but  was  deprived  of  it  by  the  Republican 
party.  At  the  Restoration  he  was  made  Governor 
of  Dover  Castle,  comptroller  of  the  navy,  and  an 
admiral.  Some  of  his  poetical  pieces  are  to  be 
found  in  the  "  Musarum  Deliciae,"  but  as  a  poet 
he  is  now  perhaps  best  remembered  by  his  amus- 
ing ballad  on  the  discomfiture  of  a  brother-poet, 
Sir  John  Suckling,  in  an  encounter  with  the  Scots 
on  the  English  border  in  1639  : 


172  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

"  Sir  John  got  on  a  bonny  brown  beast, 

To  Scotland  for  to  ride-a ; 
A  brave  buff  coat  upon  his  back, 

A  short  sword  by  his  side-a : 
Alas  !  young  man,  we  Sucklings  can 

Pull  down  the  Scottish  pride-a. 

"  Both  wife  and  maid,  and  widow  prayed, 
To  the  Scots  he  would  be  kind-a ; 

He  stormed  the  more,  and  deeply  swore, 
They  should  no  favour  find-a  ; 

But  if  you  had  been  at  Berwick  and  seen, 
He  was  in  another  mind-a." 

In  the  churchyard  of  St.  Olave's  lie  the  remains 
of  many  of  the  unfortunate  victims  of  the  great 
plague,  their  names  being  distinguished  in  the 
parish-register  by  the  significant  letter  "  P  "  being 
affixed  to  each.  According  to  a  tradition  current 
in  the  neighbourhood,  the  pestilence  first  made  its 
appearance  in  this  quarter,  in  the  Draper's  Alms- 
houses  in  Cooper's  Row,  founded  by  Sir  John 
Milborn  in  1535  ;  a  tradition  so  far  borne  out  by 
existing  evidence  that  the  first  entry  in  the  regis- 
ter of  burials  of  a  death  by  the  plague,  is  that, 
under  date  24th  July,  1665,  of  Mary,  daughter  of 
William  Ramsay,  one  of  the  "  Drapers'  Almsmen." 

Not  the  least  interesting  object  in  St.  Olave's 
Church  is  a  small  monument  of  white  marble,  sur- 
mounted with  the  bust  of  a  female  of  evidently 
considerable  beauty,  enriched  with  cherubims, 
skeletons'  heads,  palm-branches,  and  other  orna- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  173 

ments.  This  monument  is  to  the  memory  of 
Elizabeth,  the  fair  wife  of  the  gossiping,  bustling, 
good-humoured  secretary  of  the  admiralty,  Samuel 
Pepys,  who  erected  it  in  testimony  of  his  affection 
and  his  grief.  To  many  persons,  indeed,  the  prin- 
cipal charm  of  St.  Olave's  Church  consists  in  its 
frequent  connection  with  the  personal  history  of 
that  most  entertaining  of  autobiographers.  Pepys' s 
residence  was  close  by  in  Seething  Lane,  and  St. 
Olave's  was  his  parish  church.  So  little,  indeed, 
has  the  old  building  been  altered  by  time,  and  so 
graphic  and  minute  are  the  notices  of  it  which 
occur  in  Pepys' s  "  Diary,"  that  we  almost  imagine 
we  see  before  us  the  familiar  figure  of  the  smartly 
attired  secretary  standing  in  one  of  the  old  oak 
pews ;  his  fair  wife  reading  out  of  the  same  prayer- 
book  with  him  ;  her  long  glossy  tresses  falling  over 
her  shoulders ;  her  eye  occasionally  casting  a  fur- 
tive glance  at  the  voluptuous-looking  satin  petticoat 
of  which  she  had  borrowed  the  idea  either  from 
the  Duchess  of  Orleans  or  Lady  Castlemaine ;  and 
her  pretty  face  displaying  as  many  of  the  fashion- 
able black  patches  of  the  period  as  her  good-natured 
husband  would  allow  her  to  disfigure  herself  with. 
The  Latin  inscription  on  her  monument  informs 
us  that  she  was  descended  in  the  female  line  from 
the  noble  family  of  the  Cliffords  ;  that  she  received 
her  education  at  the  court  of  France  ;  that  her 
virtues  were  only  equalled  by  the  beauty  of  her 
person  and  the  accomplishments  of  her  mind  ;  that 


174  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

she  was  married  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  and  that 
she  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine. 

Some  of  the  notices  in  Pepys's  "  Diary,"  of  his 
attendances  at  divine  service  in  St.  Olave's  Church 
are  not  a  little  curious,  more  especially  where  they 
refer  to  the  revolution  in  manners  and  customs 
occasioned  by  the  recent  discomfiture  of  the  Puri- 
tans, and  by  the  revival  of  the  religious  ceremo- 
nials of  the  Church  of  England  : 

"  {tit  Novr.,  1660.  —  Lord's  Day.  In  the  morn 
to  our  own  church,  where  Mr.  Mills  did  begin  to 
nibble  at  the  Common  Prayer,  by  saying,  « Glory 
be  to  the  Father,'  etc.,  after  he  had  read  the  two 
psalms ;  but  the  people  had  been  so  little  used  to 
it,  that  they  could  not  tell  what  to  answer.  My 
wife  seemed  very  pretty  to-day,  it  being  the  first 
time  I  had  given  her  leave  to  wear  a  black  patch." 

"jothjanuary,  1 660-61. — Fast  Day.1  The  first 
time  that  this  day  hath  yet  been  observed,  and  Mr. 
Mills  made  a  most  excellent  sermon,  upon  « Lord 
forgive  us  our  former  iniquities ; '  speaking  excel- 
lently of  the  justice  of  God  in  punishing  men  for 
the  sins  of  their  ancestors.  To  my  Lady  Batten's, 
where  my  wife  and  she  are  lately  come  back  from 
seeing  of  Cromwell,  Ireton,  and  Bradshaw  hanged 
and  buried  at  Tyburn." 

"26th  October,  1662.  —  Lord's  Day.  Put  on 
my  new  Scallop,  which  is  very  fine.  To  church, 
and  there  saw,  the  first  time,  Mr.  Mills  in  a  sur- 

1  The  anniversary  of  the  decapitation  of  Charles  the  First. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  175 

plice ;  but  it  seemed  absurd  for  him  to  pull  it  over 
his  ears  in  the  reading-pew,  after  he  had  done,  be- 
fore all  the  church,  to  go  up  to  the  pulpit." 

"p//z  August,  f66j. — To  church,  and  heard 
Mr.  Mills  preach  upon  the  authority  of  the  min- 
isters, upon  these  words,  'We  are  therefore  am- 
bassadors of  Christ.'  Wherein,  among  other  high 
expressions,  he  said,  that  such  a  learned  man  used 
say,  that  if  a  minister  of  the  word  and  an  angel 
should  meet  him  together,  he  should  salute  the 
minister  first ;  which  methought  was  a  little  too 
high." 

"ftk  February,  1665-66.  —  Lord's  Day ;  and  my 
wife  and  I,  the  first  time  together  at  the  church 
since  the  plague,  and  now  only  because  of  Mr. 
Mills  his  coming  home  to  preach  his  first  sermon  ; 
expecting  a  great  excuse  for  his  leaving  the  parish 
before  anybody  went,  and  now  staying  till  all  are 
come  home ;  but  he  made  but  a  very  poor  and 
short  excuse,  and  a  bad  sermon.  It  was  a  frost, 
and  had  snowed  last  night,  which  covered  the 
graves  in  the  churchyard,  so  as  I  was  the  less 
afraid  for  going  through," 

Daniel  Mills,  D.  D.,  to  whose  sermons  in  St. 
Olave's  Church  Pepys  so  often  listened,  and  which 
he  so  frequently  criticises,  was  thirty-two  years 
rector  of  the  parish.  He  died  in  October,  1689, 
at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  and  was  buried  in  the 
church.  On  the  4th  of  June,  1703,  Pepys  was 
himself  interred  in  a  vault  in  the  middle  aisle  of 


176  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

St.  Olave's  Church,  by  the  side  of  his  wife  and 
brother. 

In  Hart  Street,  four  doors  from  Mark  Lane, 
stood,  till  within  a  few  years,  an  ancient  mansion 
styled  in  the  old  leases  Whittington's  palace, 
and  said  to  have  been  the  residence  of  Richard 
Whittington,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  whose  tale 
is  familiar  to  us  from  our  childhood.  On  pulling 
down  the  old  mansion  to  make  room  for  some 
contemplated  improvements,  the  following  curi- 
ous discovery  was  made.  On  removing  the  base- 
ment walls,  the  workmen  came  to  a  small  brick 
chamber,  the  only  opening  to  which  was  from  the 
top.  On  breaking  into  it,  it  was  found  to  contain 
many  human  bones,  mixed  with  hair,  and  so  dis- 
posed of  as  to  afford  much  reason  to  believe  that 
the  chamber  had  been  the  scene  of  foul  play.  This 
impression  was  still  further  strengthened  by  the 
discovery  of  a  dagger  —  about  twelve  inches  in 
length,  and  with  its  point  broken  —  which  was 
found  lying  among  the  bones. 

In  Hart  Street  was  born  Lady  Fanshawe,  the 
authoress  of  the  delightful  personal  "  Memoirs " 
which  bear  her  name.  "  I  was  born,"  she  writes, 
"in  St.  Olave's,  Hart  Street,  London,  in  a  house 
that  my  father  took  of  the  Lord  Dingwall,  father 
to  the  now  Duchess  of  Ormond,  in  the  year  1625, 
on  our  Lady  Day,  25th  of  March."  And  she 
adds,  "In  that  house  I  lived  the  winter  times,  till 
I  was  fifteen  years  old  and  three  months,  with 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  177 

my  very  honoured  and  most  dear  mother."  Lady 
Fanshawe  appears  to  have  been  an  intimate 
acquaintance  of  the  Duchess  of  Ormond,  who, 
on  one  occasion,  told  her  she  loved  her  for  many 
reasons,  "  and  one  was,  that  we  were  both  born  in 
one  chamber." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ALDGATE,    ST.    BOTOLPH's    CHURCH,    LEADENHALL 
STREET,    ST.    CATHERINE    CREE,    ETC. 

Derivation  of  the  name  Aldgate  —  Stow  the  Antiquary  —  His 
Labours  111  Requited  —  Cruel  Execution  of  the  Bailiff  of 
Romford — His  Speech — Church  of  St.  Botolph  —  Monu- 
ments in  the  Church  —  Defoe's  Account  of  the  Burial-pits  in 
the  Churchyard  during  the  Plague  —  Whitechapel — Duke's 
Place  —  Priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity  —  Leadenhall  Street  — 
Church  of  St.  Catherine  Cree  —  Persons  Buried  There  — 
Consecration  of  the  Church  by  Archbishop  Laud  —  Church 
of  St.  Andrew  Undershaft  —  Monuments  —  St.  Mary  Axe  — 
Lime  Street. 

FENCHURCH  STREET  leads  us  into  Aldgate, 
which  derives  its  name  from  one  of  the  principal 
gates  of  the  city,  —  styled  in  the  reign  of  King 
Edgar,  Ealdgate,  or  Oldgate,  — under  which  passed 
one  of  the  Roman  roads  leading  into  London.  In 
1215,  during  the  wars  between  King  John  and  his 
barons,  it  was  through  this  gate  that  the  latter 
entered  London  in  triumph ;  when,  after  having 
secured  the  other  gates,  and  plundered  the  royal- 
ists and  Jews,  they  proceeded  to  lay  siege  to  the 
Tower.  Here,  too,  in  1471,  during  the  wars 
between  the  White  and  Red  Roses,  the  bastard 
Falconbridge  presented  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
178 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  179 

formidable  force,  consisting  of  freebooters  and  par- 
tisans of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  and  demanded 
admittance  into  the  city.  After  a  fierce  conflict 
the  gate  was  forced  by  some  of  his  followers ; 
but  the  portcullis  having  been  let  down,  they 
were  all  killed.  The  portcullis  was  then  drawn 
up,  and  the  citizens,  sallying  forth,  repulsed  their 
assailants  with  great  slaughter. 

Among  the  records  of  the  city  of  London  is  a 
lease  granting  the  whole  of  the  dwelling-house 
above  the  gate  of  Aldgate  to  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
the  poet,  in  1374. 

Close  to  the  pump  at  Aldgate,  at  the  junction 
of  Leadenhall  Street  and  Fenchurch  Street,  lived 
the  indefatigable  antiquary,  John  Stow,  whose 
name  no  historian  of  London  can  inscribe  with- 
out feelings  of  reverence  and  gratitude.  He  was 
bred  a  tailor,  but  gave  up  his  occupation,  and  with 
it  the  means  of  living  with  ease  and  comfort,  in 
order  to  be  able  to  prosecute  his  beloved  studies 
of  history  and  antiquities.  The  manner  in  which 
his  priceless  labours  were  rewarded  by  his  un- 
grateful countrymen  is  well  known.  "  It  was  in 
his  eightieth  year,"  writes  Mr.  D'Israeli,  in  his 
"Calamities  of  Authors,"  "that  Stow  at  length 
received  a  public  acknowledgment  of  his  services, 
which  will  appear  to  us  of  a  very  extraordinary 
nature.  He  was  so  reduced  in  his  circumstances 
that  he  petitioned  James  the  First  for  a  license  to 
collect  alms  for  himself !  '  as  a  recompense  for  his 


i8o  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

labour  and  travel  of  forty-five  years,  in  setting 
forth  the  "  Chronicles  of  England,"  and  eight 
years  taken  up  in  the  "Survey  of  the  Cities  of 
London  and  Westminster,"  toward  his  relief  now 
in  his  old  age ;  having  left  his  former  means  of 
living,  and  only  employing  himself  for  the  service 
and  good  of  his  country.'  Letters-patent  under 
the  Great  Seal  were  granted.  After  no  penurious 
commendation  of  Stow's  labours,  he  is  permitted 
'  to  gather  the  benevolence  of  well-disposed  people 
within  this  realm  of  England  :  to  ask,  gather,  and 
take  the  alms  of  all  our  loving  subjects.'  These 
letters-patent  were  to  be  published  by  the  clergy 
from  their  pulpit.  They  produced  so  little  that 
they  were  renewed  for  another  twelvemonth  :  one 
entire  parish  in  the  city  contributed  seven  shil- 
lings and  sixpence !  Such,  then,  was  the  patron- 
age received  by  Stow,  to  be  a  licensed  beggar 
throughout  the  kingdom  for  one  twelvemonth ! 
Such  was  the  public  remuneration  of  a  man  who 
had  been  useful  to  his  nation,  but  not  to  himself !  " 
Stow  died  on  the  $th  of  April,  1605,  at  the  age  of 
eighty,  and  was  buried  in  the  neighbouring  church 
of  St.  Andrew  Undershaft. 

The  old  historian  mentions  a  remarkable  execu- 
tion which  he  witnessed  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Sixth  immediately  opposite  to  his  own  house 
in  Aldgate.  In  those  unsettled  times  it  was  a 
barbarous,  and  not  uncommon  practice,  to  put 
to  death  by  martial  law  those  who  propagated 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  181 

rumours  on  subjects  connected  with  affairs  of 
state,  whether  those  rumours  were  true  or  false. 
On  the  present  occasion  the  offender  was  the 
Bailiff  of  Romford,  in  Essex.  "  He  (the  bailiff)," 
writes  Stow,  "was  early  in  the  morning  of  Mary 
Magdalen's  day,  then  kept  holiday,  brought  by 
the  sheriffs  of  London  and  the  knight-marshal 
to  the  well  within  Aldgate,  there  to  be  executed 
upon  a  gibbet,  set  up  that  morning ;  where,  being 
on  the  ladder,  he  had  words  to  this  effect :  '  Good 
people,  I  am  come  hither  to  die,  but  know  not  for 
what  offence,  except  for  words  by  me  spoken  yes- 
ternight to  Sir  Stephen,  curate  and  preacher  of 
this  parish,  which  were  these  :  He  asked  me,  what 
news  in  the  country?  I  answered,  heavy  news. 
Why?  quoth  he.  It  is  said,  quoth  I,  that  many 
men  be  up  in  Essex,  but,  thanks  be  to  God,  all  is 
in  good  quiet  about  us.  And  this  was  all,  as  God 
be  my  judge.'  Upon  these  words  of  the  prisoner, 
Sir  Stephen,  to  avoid  reproach  of  the  people,  left 
the  city,  and  was  never  heard  of  since  amongst 
them  to  my  knowledge.  I  heard  the  words  of  the 
prisoner,  for  he  was  executed  upon  the  pavement 
of  my  door,  where  I  then  kept  house."  This  Sir 
Stephen  was  the  incendiary  curate  of  the  neigh- 
bouring church  of  St.  Catherine  Cree,  whose 
fanatical  ravings  in  the  pulpit  had  recently  led 
to  the  populace  destroying  the  ancient  and  cele- 
brated Maypole  opposite  the  church  of  St.  Andrew 
Undershaft. 


1 82  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  High-street,  Aldgate, 
stands  the  church  of  St.  Botolph,  dedicated  to  a 
Cornish  saint,  who  lived  about  the  reign  of  King 
Lucius.  This  church  appears  to  have  been  orig- 
inally founded  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest. 
About  the  year  1418  it  was  enlarged  and  beauti- 
fied at  the  private  expense  of  one  Robert  Burford, 
but  was  shortly  afterward  rebuilt  by  the  priory  of 
the  Holy  Trinity  within  Aldgate,  the  brethen  of 
which  enjoyed  the  impropriation  of  the  living.  St. 
Botolph's  escaped  the  great  conflagration  in  1666, 
but  falling  into  decay  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  it  was  taken  down ;  and  between  the 
years  1741  and  1744,  the  present  ponderous  and 
unsightly  edifice  was  erected  on  its  site. 

The  only  monument  in  St.  Botolph's  Church  of 
any  historical  interest  is  that  of  Thomas,  Lord 
Darcy,  Knight  of  the  Garter,  who  was  beheaded 
on  Tower  Hill  for  high  treason  in  1536.  This 
gallant  and  conscientious  nobleman  had  obtained 
high  honours  and  distinctions  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Seventh,  and  had  enjoyed  the  confi- 
dence of  his  successor.  Opposed,  however,  to 
the  innovations  of  the  new  religion,  he  absented 
himself  from  Parliament  rather  than  sanction  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  and,  having  subse- 
quently joined  in  Ask's  rebellion,  was  convicted 
on  a  charge  of  delivering  up  Pontefract  Castle 
to  the  rebels,  and  led  to  the  block.  The  monu- 
ment to  his  memory  stood  originally  in  the  chan- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  183 

eel  of  the  old  church,  but  is  now  placed  on  the 
east  side  of  the  entrance  front.  It  represents  the 
figure  of  Lord  Darcy,  wrapped  in  a  winding-sheet, 
in  a  recumbent  posture,  beneath  an  entablature 
supported  by  columns,  and  bears  the  following 
inscription  : 

"  Here  lyeth  Thomas  Lord  Darcy  of  the  North, 
and  sometime  of  the  Order  of  the  Garter ;  Sir 
Nicholas  Carew,  Knight  of  the  Garter ;  Lady 
Elizabeth  Carew,  daughter  to  Sir  Fran.  Brian ; 
Sir  Arthur  Darcy,  younger  son  to  the  said  Lord 
Darcy  ;  and  Lady  Mary,  his  dear  wife,  daughter  of 
Sir  Nicholas  Carew,  who  had  ten  sons  and  five 
daughters." 

Sir  Nicholas  Carew,  the  knight  here  mentioned, 
also  lost  his  head  on  the  block.  He  had  been 
master  of  the  horse  to  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  a 
Knight  of  the  Garter,  but  having  been  implicated 
in  the  plot  said  to  have  been  devised  by  Edward 
Courtenay,  Marquis  of  Exeter,  for  deposing  the 
king  and  raising  Cardinal  Pole  to  the  supreme 
power,  he  was  beheaded  on  Tower  Hill  on  the 
3d  of  March,  1538.  Another  of  the  Darcy  fam- 
ily who  lies  buried  here  is  Sir  Edward,  third  son 
of  Sir  Arthur  Darcy,  who  died  on  the  28th  of 
October,  1612. 

The  only  other  monument  in  St.  Botolph's 
Church,  of  any  interest,  is  that  of  Robert  Dow, 
a  charitable  and  munificent  citizen  and  merchant 
tailor  of  London,  who  died  on  the  2d  of  May, 


1 84  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

1612.  This  was  the  person  who  bequeathed  a 
sum  of  money  to  the  parish  church  of  St.  Sepul- 
chre's, to  ensure  the  ringing  of  a  hand-bell  at 
certain  periods  of  the  night  beneath  the  walls  of 
Newgate,  in  order  to  remind  the  condemned  pris- 
oners of  their  present  condition  and  approaching 
fate. 

The  churchyard  of  St.  Botolph's  is  the  site  of 
one  of  those  vast  burial-pits,  in  which  the  bodies 
of  the  countless  victims  of  the  great  plague  — 
"  unaneled,  uncoffined,  and  unknown "  —  were 
flung  indiscriminately  in  1665.  "I  went,"  writes 
Defoe  in  his  "History  of  the  Plague,"  "at  the 
first  part  of  the  time  freely  about  the  streets, 
though  not  so  freely  as  to  run  myself  into  appar- 
ent danger,  except  when  they  dug  the  great  pit  in 
the  churchyard  of  our  parish  of  Aldgate.  A  ter- 
rible pit  it  was,  and  I  could  not  resist  my  curiosity 
to  go  and  see  it.  As  near  as  I  may  judge,  it  was 
about  forty  feet  in  length,  and  about  fifteen  or 
sixteen  feet  broad,  and  at  the  time  I  first  looked 
at  it,  about  nine  feet  deep  ;  but  it  was  said  they 
dug  it  near  twenty  feet  deep  afterward  in  one  part 
of  it,  till  they  could  go  no  deeper  for  the  water. 
They  had,  it  seems,  dug  several  large  pits  before 
this ;  for  though  the  plague  was  long  a-coming  to 
our  parish,  yet  when  it  did  come,  there  was  no 
parish  in  or  about  London  where  it  raged  with 
such  violence  as  in  the  two  parishes  of  Aldgate 
and  Whitechapel." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  185 

It  was  at  night,  by  the  fitful  light  of  the  torches 
borne  by  the  buriers  of  the  dead,  that  Defoe 
describes  himself  looking  into  the  frightful  plague- 
pit  in  St.  Botolph's  churchyard.  "  I  stood  waver- 
ing," he  writes,  "for  some  time,  but  just  at  that 
interval  I  saw  two  links  come  over  from  the  end 
of  the  Minories,  and  heard  the  bellman,  and  then 
appeared  a  dead-cart,  so  they  called  it,  coming 
over  the  streets,  so  I  could  no  longer  resist  my 
desire  of  seeing  it,  and  went  in.  There  was  no- 
body, as  I  could  perceive  at  first,  in  the  church- 
yard or  going  into  it,  but  the  buriers  and  the 
fellow  that  drove  the  cart,  or  rather  led  the  horse 
and  cart ;  but  when  they  came  up  to  the  pit  they 
saw  a  man  muffled  up  in  a  brown  cloak,  making 
motions  with  his  hands  under  his  cloak,  as  if  he 
were  in  a  great  agony.  The  buriers  immediately 
gathered  about  him,  supposing  he  was  one  of 
those  poor  delirious  or  desperate  creatures  that 
used  to  pretend,  as  I  have  said,  to  bury  them- 
selves. He  said  nothing  as  he  walked  about,  but 
two  or  three  times  groaned  very  deeply  and  loud, 
and  sighed  as  he  would  break  his  heart.  When 
the  buriers  came  up  to  him,  they  soon  found  he 
was  neither  a  person  infected  and  desperate,  nor  a 
person  distempered  in  mind,  but  one  oppressed 
with  a  dreadful  weight  of  grief  indeed,  having  his 
wife  and  several  of  his  children  all  in  the  cart  that 
was  just  come  in  with  him,  and  he  followed  in  an 
agony  and  excess  of  sorrow.  He  mourned  heart- 


1 86  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

ily,  as  it  was  easy  to  see,  but  with  a  kind  of  mas- 
culine grief  that  could  not  give  itself  vent  by  tears. 
Calmly  desiring  the  buriers  to  let  him  alone,  he 
said  he  would  only  see  the  bodies  thrown  in  and 
go  away,  so  they  left  importuning  him,  but  no 
sooner  was  the  cart  turned  round,  and  the  bodies 
shot  into  the  pit  promiscuously  —  which  was  a 
surprise  to  him,  for  he  at  least  expected  they 
would  have  been  decently  laid  in  —  I  say  no 
sooner  did  he  see  the  sight  but  he  cried  out 
aloud,  unable  to  contain  himself.  I  could  not 
hear  what  he  said,  but  he  went  backward  two  or 
three  times,  and  fell  down  in  a  swoon.  The 
buriers  ran  to  him,  and  took  him  up,  and  in  a 
little  while  he  came  to  himself,  and  they  led  him 
away  to  the  Pye  tavern,  over  against  the  end  of 
Houndsditch,  where,  it  seems,  the  man  was  known, 
and  where  they  took  care  of  him.  He  looked  into 
the  pit  again  as  he  went  away,  but  the  buriers  had 
covered  the  bodies  so  immediately,  with  throwing 
in  the  earth,  that  though  there  was  light  enough, 
for  there  were  lanterns  and  candles  in  them,  placed 
all  night  round  the  sides  of  the  pit  upon  the  heaps 
of  earth  —  seven  or  eight,  or  perhaps  more  —  yet 
nothing  could  be  seen.  This  was  a  mournful  scene 
indeed,  and  affected  me  almost  as  much  as  the  rest, 
but  the  other  was  awful  and  full  of  terror.  The 
cart  had  in  it  sixteen  or  seventeen  bodies ;  some 
were  wrapped  up  in  linen  sheets,  some  in  rugs, 
some  little  other  than  naked,  or  so  loose  that  what 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  187 

covering  they  had  fell  from  them  in  the  shooting 
out  of  the  cart,  and  they  fell  quite  naked  among 
the  rest.  During  a  fortnight  that  the  plague  was 
at  its  height  in  this  neighbourhood,  the  parish  of 
Aldgate  is  said  to  have  buried  no  fewer  than  a 
thousand  persons  a  week." 

Adjoining  Aldgate  is  the  spacious  street  of 
Whitechapel,  the  principal  entrance  into  London 
from  the  eastern  counties.  It  is  styled  in  old 
records  Villa  beatce  Maries  de  Matfelon,  and  de- 
rives its  name  from  the  church  of  St.  Mary, 
Matfelon,  —  originally  a  chapel  of  ease  to  St. 
Dunstan's  Stepney,  —  which,  from  the  whiteness 
of  its  exterior,  was  called  the  White  Chapel.  In 
the  churchyard  of  St.  Mary's  lies  buried  Richard 
Brandon,  the  presumed  executioner  of  Charles  the 
First,  and  in  the  vaults  of  the  church  Richard 
Parker,  the  leader  of  the  mutineers  of  the  Nore. 

In  this  neighbourhood,  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  several  of  the  nobility  had 
their  suburban  residences.  Among  these  were 
Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Essex,  the  ill-fated 
minister  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  Count  Gondo- 
mar,  the  facetious  ambassador  from  Spain  in  the 
reign  of  James  the  First. 

In  what  was  formerly  called  the  Danish  Church, 
Whitechapel,  now  the  British  and  Foreign  Sailors' 
Church,  lie  interred  the  remains  of  Caius  Gabriel 
Cibber,  the  sculptor,  and  of  his  more  celebrated 
son,  Colley  Cibber.  The  former  was  the  architect 


i88  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

of  the  church,  which  was  built  in  1696,  at  the 
expense  of  Christian  the  Fifth,  King  of  Denmark, 
for  the  benefit  of  such  of  his  subjects  as  might 
reside  in  or  visit  London.  Opposite  to  the  pulpit 
is  the  royal  pew,  in  which  Christian  the  Seventh 
sat  when  he  visited  London  in  1768.  In  the 
church  is  a  tablet  to  the  memory  of  Jane  Cibber, 
the  wife  of  the  sculptor,  and  the  mother  of  Colley 
Cibber. 

To  the  northwest  of  Aldgate  is  Duke's  Place, 
called  also  St.  James's  Place,  a  quarter  principally 
inhabited  by  Jews,  whom  Oliver  Cromwell,  in 
1650,  allowed  to  settle  in  this  locality.  Here 
stood  the  ancient  priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity, 
sometimes  called  Christ  Church,  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  monastic  foundations  in  England.  It 
was  founded  by  Matilda,  wife  of  Henry  the  First, 
in  1 1 08.  The  prior,  in  right  of  his  being  proprie- 
tor of  Knightenguild  or  Portsoken  Ward,  as  it  is 
now  styled,  was  an  alderman  of  London,  and  in 
that  capacity  sat  and  rode  in  state  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  corporation ;  his  scarlet  robe  only  so 
far  differing  from  the  robes  of  the  other  aldermen, 
that  it  was  shaped  like  that  of  an  ecclesiastic. 
"At  this  time,"  writes  Stow,  in  allusion  to  his 
early  recollections  of  the  lordly  prior  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  "  the  prior  kept  a  most  bountiful  house  of 
meat  and  drink,  both  for  rich  and  poor,  as  well 
within  the  house  as  at  the  gates,  to  all  comers, 
according  to  their  estates." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  189 

At  the  dissolution  of  the  monastic  houses,  the 
priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity  was  granted  by  Henry 
the  Eighth  to  Sir  Thomas  Audley,  who  succeeded 
Sir  Thomas  More  as  Lord  Chancellor  of  England, 
and  who  was  created  Baron  Audley  of  Walden  on 
the  29th  of  November,  1538.  Here  he  built  a 
magnificent  mansion,  where  he  died  on  the  iQth 
of  April,  1544,  bequeathing  a  legacy  of  one  hun- 
dred pounds  to  his  royal  master,  "from  whom  he 
had  received  all  his  reputations  and  benefits."  By 
the  marriage  of  his  only  daughter  and  sole  heir- 
ess, Margaret,  to  the  chivalrous  and  accomplished 
Thomas,  Duke  of  Norfolk,  famous  for  his  roman- 
tic attachment  to  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  Audley 
House  became  the  property  and  the  residence  of 
that  nobleman,  and  from  him  Duke's  Place  derives 
its  name.  A  visit  paid  by  the  duke  to  his  princely 
mansion  in  Duke's  Place,  in  1562,  affords  us  a 
striking  picture  of  the  magnificence  of  the  times. 
By  the  side  of  the  duke  rode  his  duchess.  The 
procession  was  headed  by  the  four  heralds,  Clar- 
encieux,  Somerset,  Red  Cross,  and  Blue  Mantle; 
the  gentlemen  of  the  ducal  household  followed  in 
coats  of  velvet,  and  the  procession  closed  with  a 
hundred  retainers  in  the  livery  of  the  Howards. 
The  duke  was  beheaded  on  Tower  Hill,  on  the 
2d  of  June,  1572,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four. 
His  mansion  in  Duke's  Place  descended  to  his 
eldest  son  by  Margaret  Audley,  Thomas,  created 
in  1603  Earl  of  Suffolk,  who  sold  it  in  July,  1592, 


I QO  LONDON  AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

to  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  London.  It  was 
in  this  house  that  the  great  painter,  Hans  Holbein, 
died  of  the  plague,  in  1554. 

Of  the  priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  only  por- 
tion remaining  in  our  time  was  a  small  but  beauti- 
ful crypt,  of  great  antiquity,  beneath  a  house  till 
of  late  standing  at  the  junction  of  Leadenhall 
Street  and  Fenchurch  Street.  From  the  ruins  of 
the  priory,  however,  rose  the  present  St.  James's 
Church,  Mitre  Square,  which  was  built  in  1621, 
during  the  mayoralty  of  Sir  Edward  Barkham, 
who  was  principally  instrumental  in  obtaining 
its  erection.  It  escaped  the  fire  of  1666,  but 
falling  into  a  ruinous  condition,  the  present  dil- 
apidated and  uninteresting  building  was  erected 
in  1727. 

Aldgate  leads  us  into  Leadenhall  Street,  so 
called  from  "  Leaden  Hall,"  a  large  and  ponder- 
ous-looking mansion,  inhabited,  about  the  year 
1309,  by  Sir  Hugh  Neville,  and  afterward  the 
residence  of  the  De  Bohuns,  Earls  of  Hereford. 
In  1408,  it  was  purchased  by  Whittington,  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  who  presented  it  to  the  corpora- 
tion, and,  in  1445,  Sir  Simon  Eyre,  citizen  and 
draper,  established  here,  "of  his  own  charges," 
a  public  granary  of  square  stone,  with  a  chapel  at 
the  east  end.  In  this  chapel,  a  few  years  after- 
ward, was  founded  a  fraternity  of  sixty  priests, 
besides  other  brethren  and  sisters,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  perform  divine  service  every  market  day, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  191 

for  the  edification  of  the  persons  who  frequented 
Lead  en  hall  Market. 

Defoe,  speaking  of  the  desolation  of  this  popu- 
lous part  of  London  during  the  plague,  observes  : 
"  The  great  streets  within  the  city,  such  as  Leaden- 
hall  Street,  Bishopsgate  Street,  Cornhill,  and  even 
the  Exchange  itself,  had  grass  growing  in  them  in 
several  places.  Neither  cart  nor  coach  were  seen 
in  the  streets  from  morning  to  evening,  except 
some  country  carts,  to  bring  roots,  beans,  or  pease, 
hay  and  straw,  to  the  market,  and  of  those  but  very 
few  compared  to  what  was  usual.  As  for  coaches, 
they  were  scarce  used  to  carry  sick  people  to  the 
pest-house,  and  to  other  hospitals ;  and  some  few 
to  carry  physicians  to  such  places  as  they  thought 
fit  to  venture  to  visit." 

It  was  at  the  King's  Head  Tavern,  which  stood 
till  within  a  few  years  on  the  north  side  of  Leaden- 
hall  Street,  that  the  conspirators  engaged  in  Sir 
John  Fenwick's  plot,  in  the  reign  of  William  the 
Third,  were  accustomed  to  hold  their  meetings. 
The  kitchen  of  the  house,  No.  153,  still  contains 
a  curious  English  crypt. 

On  the  north  side  of  Leadenhall  Street,  on  the 
site  of  what  was  once  the  cemetery  of  the  priory 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  stands  the  interesting  church 
of  St.  Catherine  Cree,  so  called  from  its  having 
been  dedicated  to  St.  Catherine,  an  Egyptian 
virgin ;  the  word  Cree,  or  Christ,  having  been 
added  in  order  to  distinguish  it  from  other  churches 


192  LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

in  London  dedicated  to  the  same  saint.  The  origi- 
nal structure,  which  was  of  great  antiquity,  was 
pulled  down  and  rebuilt  in  1107.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  tower,  it  was  again  rebuilt,  as  it  now 
stands,  in  1629, — according  to  some  accounts, 
under  the  direction  of  the  great  architect,  Inigo 
Jones.  The  interior  of  the  church  presents  a  singu- 
lar appearance,  from  the  strange  mixture  of  Gothic 
and  Corinthian  architecture,  certainly  a  very  inap- 
propriate union,  but  nevertheless  extremely  pictur- 
esque in  its  general  effect. 

From  a  passage  in  Strype,  there  is  reason  for 
presuming  that  either  in  St.  Catherine's  Cree,  or 
in  the  adjoining  churchyard,  rest  the  remains  of 
the  illustrious  Holbein.  One  of  the  few  redeeming 
traits  in  the  character  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  was 
his  having  appreciated  the  genius  of  and  be- 
friended' the  great  artist.  Every  one  remembers 
his  speech  to  a  nobleman  of  his  court  who  came 
to  prefer  a  complaint  to  him  of  presumed  insolence 
on  the  part  of  Holbein.  "  Begone,  and  remember 
that  I  shall  look  upon  any  injury  offered  to  the 
painter  as  an  insult  to  myself.  I  tell  you,  I  can 
make  seven  lords  of  seven  ploughmen,  but  I  cannot 
make  one  Holbein  even  of  seven  lords."  That  the 
illustrious  artist  lies  buried  in  St.  Catherine's  Cree 
certainly  requires  proof ;  but  the  unquestionable 
fact  of  his  having  breathed  his  last  under  the 
adjoining  roof  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  adds  weight 
to  the  supposition.  According  to  Strype,  it  was 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  193 

the  intention  of  the  duke's  eldest  son,  Philip,  Earl 
of  Arundel,  to  erect  a  monument  over  his  grave, 
but  from  the  length  of  time  which  had  elapsed 
since  his  death,  the  earl  was  unable  to  discover 
the  exact  spot  where  his  remains  rested. 

In  St.  Catherine's  Church  also  lies  buried  the 
eminent  soldier,  diplomatist,  and  statesman,  Sir 
Nicholas  Throckmorton,  who  was  involved  in  the 
daring  project  of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  to  raise 
the  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  the  throne,  and  who  only 
escaped  with  his  life  by  the  admirable  defence 
which  he  made  at  his  trial  at  Guildhall.  He 
commanded  at  Musselburgh  Field,  for  which  ser- 
vice he  was  knighted.  He  was  held  in  great  esti- 
mation by  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  employed  him  as 
her  ambassador  both  in  France  and  Scotland. 
According  to  Camden,  "Though  a  man  of  a 
large  experience,  piercing  judgment,  and  singular 
prudence,  yet  he  was  never  master  of  much 
wealth,  nor  rose  higher  than  to  those  small  dig- 
nities, though  glorious  in  title,  of  chief  cupbearer 
of  England,  and  chamberlain  of  the  exchequer; 
and  this  because  he  acted  in  favour  of  Leicester, 
against  Cecil,  whose  greatness  he  envied.  It 
was  in  Cecil's  house,  as  he  was  feeding  heartily 
at  supper  upon  a  salad,  that  he  was  seized,  as 
some  say,  with  an  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  as 
others,  with  a  catarrh,  not  without  suspicion  of 
poison ;  and  died  very  luckily  for  himself  and 
family,  his  life  and  estate  being  in  great  danger 


194  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES 

by  reason  of  his  turbulent   spirit."      It   appears 
that  he  expired  before  he  could  be  removed  from 

the  table.1 

The  only  other  monument  of  any  interest  in 
St.  Catherine's  Church  is  a  bas-relief,  executed 
by  the  elder  Bacon,  erected  to  the  memory  of 
Samuel  Thorpe  in  1791. 

This  church  is  connected  with  a  curious  pas- 
sage in  the  life  of  Archbishop  Laud.  Laud's 
intemperate  zeal  in  all  matters  connected  with 
Church  and  state  —  his  active  and  ill-timed  en- 
deavours to  elevate  the  Church  of  England  to  a 
higher  standard  in  regard  to  authority  and  disci- 
pline, his  rigorous  prosecutions  of  the  Puritans  in 
the  star-chamber,  his  introduction  into  Church 
ceremonials  of  music,  pictures,  vestments,  and 
other  paraphernalia,  at  a  time  when  such  innova- 
tions were  most  unseasonable  —  had  led  to  his 
being  regarded  by  the  Puritanical  party  in  Eng- 
land with  feelings  of  detestation  which  it  would 

1  His  monument  consists  of  his  effigy  in  marble,  lying  at  full 
length,  on  stone  carved  in  imitation  of  matting,  and  bears  the 
following  inscription  : 

"  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Nicholas  Throckmorton,  Knight, 
the  fourth  son  of  George  Throckmorton,  Knight;  which  Sir 
Nicholas  was  Chief  Butler  of  England,  one  of  the  Chamberlains 
of  the  Exchequer,  and  Ambassador-Leiger  to  the  Queen's  Maj- 
esty, Queen  Elizabeth.  And  after  his  return  into  England,  he 
was  sent  Ambassador  again  into  France,  and  twice  into  Scot- 
land. He  married  Anne  Carew,  daughter  to  Sir  Nicholas 
Carew,  Knight,  and  begat  of  her  ten  sons  and  three  daughters. 
He  died  the  1 2th  of  February,  1 570,  aged  57." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  195 

be  difficult  to  exaggerate.  Then  it  was,  when 
the  popular  outcry  was  at  its  highest,  that,  having 
been  called  upon  on  the  i6th  of  January,  1630-31, 
to  consecrate  the  new  church  of  St.  Catherine 
Cree,  he  was  unwise  enough  to  perform  the  cere- 
mony attended  by  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  At  his  approach,  cer- 
tain persons  stationed  near  the  door  called  out,  in 
a  loud  voice,  "  Open,  open,  ye  everlasting  doors, 
that  the  King  of  Glory  may  enter  in."  Then  fol- 
lowed the  archbishop,  who,  falling  on  his  knees, 
and  extending  his  arms,  exclaimed,  "  This  place  is 
holy ;  the  ground  is  holy ;  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  I  pronounce  it 
holy."  Having  risen  from  his  knees,  he  pro- 
ceeded toward  the  chancel,  bowing,  and  throwing 
dust  in  the  air  as  he  passed  along.  The  proces- 
sion then  made  a  circuit  of  the  church ;  the  arch- 
bishop repeating  two  psalms  and  a  prayer,  which 
were  followed  by  his  pronouncing  anathemas 
against  any  future  profaner  of  the  place,  and 
blessings  on  those  who  had  assisted  in  its  erection. 
At  every  sentence  he  made  a  profound  bow. 

The  scene  which  followed  the  delivery  of  the 
sermon  is  described  by  his  arch  enemy,  the  acri- 
monious Prynne,  in  his  "Canterbury's  Doom," 
with  pungent  though  almost  profane  humour. 
"When  the  bishop  approached  near  the  commun- 
ion table,  he  bowed  with  his  nose  very  near  the 
ground,  some  six  or  seven  times.  Then  he  came 


196  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

to  one  of  the  corners  of  the  tables,  and  there 
bowed  himself  three  times;  then  to  the  second, 
third,  and  fourth  corners,  bowing  at  each  corner 
three  times ;  but  when  he  came  to  the  side  of  the 
table  where  the  bread  and  wine  was,  he  bowed 
himself  seven  times.  Then,  after  the  reading 
many  prayers  by  himself  and  his  two  fat  chaplains 
(which  were  with  him,  and  all  this  while  were 
upon  their  knees  by  him,  in  their  surplices,  hoods, 
and  tippets),  he  himself  came  near  the  bread, 
which  was  cut  and  laid  in  a  fine  napkin ;  and  then 
he  gently  lifted  up  one  of  the  corners  of  the  said 
napkin,  and  peeped  into  it  till  he  saw  the  bread 
(like  a  boy  that  peeps  into  a  bird's  nest  in  a  bush), 
and  presently  clapped  it  down  again,  and  flew 
back  a  step  or  two ;  and  then  bowed  very  low 
three  times  toward  it  and  the  table.  When  he 
beheld  the  bread,  then  he  came  near,  and  opened 
the  napkin  again,  and  bowed  as  before.  Then  he 
laid  his  hand  upon  the  gilt  cup,  which  was  full  of 
wine,  with  a  cover  upon  it.  So  soon  as  he  had 
pulled  the  cup  a  little  nearer  to  him,  he  let  the 
cup  go,  flew  back,  and  bowed  again  three  times 
toward  it ;  then  he  came  near  again,  and  lifting 
up  the  cover  of  the  cup,  peeped  into  it,  and  seeing 
the  wine,  he  let  fall  the  cover  on  it  again,  and 
flew  nimbly  back,  and  bowed  as  before.  After 
these,  and  many  other  apish,  antic  gestures,  he 
himself  received,  and  then  gave  the  sacrament  to 
some  principal  men  only,  they  devoutly  kneeling 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  197 

near  the  table ;  after  which  more  prayers  being 
said,  this  scene  and  interlude  ended." 

That  these  and  similar  satirical  attacks  on  the 
part  of  Prynne  sank  deeply  into  the  heart  of 
Laud,  may  be  assumed  from  the  extreme  rigour 
of  the  sentence  passed  upon  the  former  the  fol-~ 
lowing  year  when  brought  before  the  star-chamber 
for  publishing  his  famous  "  Histrio  Mastix."  He 
was  sentenced  to  be  expelled  the  University  of 
Oxford  and  the  Society  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  to  be 
degraded  from  his  profession  of  the  law,  to  stand 
twice  in  the  pillory,  to  lose  an  ear  each  time,  and 
to  be  incarcerated  for  life.  Nevertheless,  Prynne 
lived  to  conduct  the  famous  prosecution  against 
Laud,  and  to  bring  the  haughty  prelate  to  the 
block.  He  survived,  moreover,  the  loss  of  his  ears 
nearly  forty  years,  and  after  having  opposed  the 
despotism  of  Cromwell  and  the  bigotry  of  the 
Independents  with  the  same  undaunted  spirit  with 
which  he  had  combated  the  intolerance  of  Laud 
and  the  aggressive  domination  of  Strafford,  he 
lived  to  be  grateful  at  the  Restoration  for  a  liveli- 
hood which  he  obtained  as  keeper  of  the  records 
in  the  Tower,  and  to  forget  the  storms  of  the 
past  in  the  literary  seclusion  of  his  chambers  in 
Lincoln's  Inn. 

On  the  north  side  of  Leadenhall  Street,  at  the 
east  corner  of  St.  Mary  Axe,  stands  the  beautiful 
church  of  St.  Andrew  Undershaft,  dedicated  to 
Saint  Andrew  the  Apostle.  It  derives  its  second 


198  LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

name  from  a  shaft,  or  May-pole,  which  stood  op- 
posite to  it,  and  which  towered  above  the  church 
itself. 

As  we  have  already  mentioned,  this  May-pole, 
which  was  more  celebrated  even  than  that  in  the 
Strand,  owed  its  downfall  to  the  fanaticism  of  one 
Sir  Stephen,  curate  of  St.  Catherine  Cree,  who,  in 
a  sermon  which  he  preached  at  Paul's  Cross,  con- 
trived to  convince  his  ignorant  audience  that  it 
was  associated  with  idolatry,  and  so  wrought  upon 
their  bigotry  that  they  severed  it  into  pieces  and 
committed  it  piecemeal  to  the  flames.  It  was  a 
sad  sacrilege,  for  the  old  May-pole  had,  from  time 
immemorial,  been  associated  with  many  innocent 
pastimes. 

"  Happy  the  age,  and  harmless  were  the  days, 
For  then  true  love  and  amity  were  found, 
When  every  village  did  a  May-pole  raise, 

And  Whitsun-ales  and  May-games  did  abound." 

On  the  return  of  every  first  of  May,  the  May-pole, 
decorated  with  scarfs,  ribbons,  and  flowers,  was 
raised  into  the  air  with  great  ceremony  by  yokes 
of  oxen  in  front  of  the  south  door  of  the  church  ; 
the  horns  of  the  oxen  being  tipped  with  nosegays 
of  flowers.  Bands  of  music ;  men,  women,  and 
children,  carrying  boughs  and  branches  for  which 
they  had  gone  "a-maying"  in  the  neighbouring 
meadows  and  lanes  of  Hampstead,  Highgate,  and 
Greenwich  ;  arbours,  summer-halls,  and  bowers ; 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  199 

the  Queen  of  the  May,  with  her  blushing  face  and 
laughing  eyes ;  the  revelling  and  merriment,  and 
harmless  jokes ;  and,  above  all,  the  light  forms 
circling  the  May-pole  in  the  merry  dance,  —  such 
were  the  scenes  which  the  first  of  May  witnessed 
in  England  in  the  olden  time.  But  we  must  re- 
turn to  St.  Andrew's  Church,  still  a  most  interest- 
ing relic  of  the  past,  with  its  ancient  monuments, 
its  rich  specimens  of  Tudor  architecture,  its  fresco 
paintings  of  the  apostles  between  the  windows  ; 
the  nave,  with  its  square  panels  painted  blue,  and 
its  gilded  ornaments  of  shields  and  flowers  ;  and 
lastly,  its  pulpit  of  carved  oak,  and  its  large 
painted  window  at  the  east  end  of  the  nave,  in 
which,  in  stained  glass,  are  portraits  of  the  sov- 
ereigns of  England  from  Edward  the  Sixth  to 
Charles  the  Second. 

The  first  notice  which  we  find  of  St.  Andrew's 
Church  is  in  1 362,  when  William  of  Chichester  was 
the  rector.  The  present  building  was  erected 
between  the  years  1520  and  1532.  Among  the 
more  curious  and  ancient  monuments  which  it 
contains  may  be  mentioned  a  brass  plate,  with 
figures  engraved  on  it,  in  memory  of  Simon  Bur- 
ton, citizen,  who  died  in  1595;  another  to  the 
memory  of  Thomas  Levison,  sheriff,  who  died  in 
1534;  a  fine  monument  of  Sir  Thomas  Offley, 
knight  and  alderman,  who  died  in  1582;  and  a 
sumptuous  tomb  to  the  memory  of  Sir  Hugh 
Hammersley  and  his  wife,  erected  in  1637. 


200  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

But  by  far  the  most  interesting  mouument  in 
the  church  is  that  of  the  indefatigable  antiquary, 
John  Stow.  His  monument,  which  is  of  consid- 
erable size,  and  fenced  with  an  iron  rail,  represents 
him  in  effigy  sitting  at  a  desk,  in  a  furred  gown, 
in  the  attitude  of  study.  It  is  said  to  be  formed 
of  terra-cotta,  or  clay  burned,  but  has  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  of  alabaster  or  marble.  Neg- 
lected and  persecuted  during  his  lifetime,  his 
remains,  according  to  Maitland,  were  not  even 
permitted  to  rest  in  peace  after  his  death,  having 
been  removed,  in  1732,  to  make  room  for  the 
body  of  another  person. 

In  St.  Andrew's  Church  lies  buried  Peter  An- 
thony Motteux,  once  popular  as  a  poet,  and  the 
translator  of  "Don  Quixote"  and  of  "Rabelais." 
He  carried  on  a  prosperous  business  as  a  vendor 
of  East  India  wares  in  Leadenhall  Street,  and 
died  in  a  disreputable  house  in  the  Strand  in  1718. 

St.  Mary  Axe,  on  the  north  side  of  Leadenhall 
Street,  derives  its  name,  according  to  Stow,  from 
the  sign  of  an  axe,  which  was  formerly  a  conspicu- 
ous object  at  one  end  of  it.  Nearly  on  this  spot, 
facing  Leadenhall  Street,  stood,  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Fifth,  the  London  residence  of  the 
powerful  family  of  the  De  Veres,  Earls  of  Oxford. 
Here  in  this  reign  resided  Richard,  the  eleventh 
earl,  who  fought  by  the  side  of  his  royal  master 
during  the  wars  in  France,  and  who  died  in  that 
country  in  1417. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  201 

In  Lime  Street,  on  the  south  side  of  Leaden- 
hall  Street,  stood  the  mansion  and  chapel  of  the 
accomplished  Sir  Simon  de  Burley,  formerly  in  the 
possession  of  Lord  Neville.  Lime  Street  is  said 
to  take  its  name  from  lime  having  been  made  or 
sold  here.  In  this  street  the  first  penny  post 
office  was  established  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
Second. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

CORNHILL,    SAINT    MICHAEL'S    CHURCH,    ROYAL   EX- 
CHANGE,   ETC. 

Cornhill  Frequented  by  Old  Clothes  Sellers  —  "  Pope's  Head  " 

—  First     London     Coffee-house  —  Tea-drinking  —  St.     Mi- 
chael's Church — The    Standard   in  Comhill  —  The    Royal 
Exchange  —  The  Pawn  —  Royal  Exchange  Bazaar  —  Change 
Alley  —  Threadneedle    Street  —  Gordon    Riots  —  Merchant 
Taylors'   Company — Southsea  House  —  Drapers'  Company 

—  Plague  in  Lothbury. 

LEADENHALL  STREET  leads  us  into  Cornhill, 
which  derives  its  name  from  its  having  been  from 
time  immemorial  the  principal  corn-market  in 
London.  In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Cornhill  ap- 
pears to  have  been  principally  frequented  by  the 
vendors  of  worn-out  apparel,  who,  according  to 
Stow,  were  not  among  the  most  honest  classes  of 
the  community.  "I  have  read  of  a  countryman," 
he  writes,  "that,  having  lost  his  hood  in  West- 
minster Hall,  found  the  same  in  Cornhill,  hanged 
out  to  be  sold,  which  he  challenged,  but  was  forced 
to  buy  or  go  without  it." 

In  Cornhill  stood  a  large  building  called  the 
Pope's  Head,  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  ancient 


Ancient  l/iew  of  Cornhill. 

Photo-etching  from  a  rare  old  print. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  203 

taverns  in  London,  and  which  unquestionably  ex- 
isted in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Fourth.  Here,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Sixth, 
wine  was  sold  for  one  penny  the  pint ;  no  charge 
being  made  for  bread.  According  to  Stow,  the 
Pope's  Head  had  not  improbably  been  a  royal 
palace.  In  his  time  the  ancient  arms  of  England, 
consisting  of  three  leopards,  supported  between 
two  angels,  were  still  to  be  seen  engraved  in  stone 
on  the  walls.  In  this  tavern,  on  the  I4th  of 
April,  1718,  Bowen,  a  hot-headed  Irish  comedian, 
was  killed  in  a  duel  of  his  own  seeking  by  his  fel- 
low actor,  Quin.  The  site  of  the  Pope's  Head  is 
pointed  out  by  Pope's  Head  Alley,  running  from 
Cornhill  into  Lombard  Street. 

The  house  numbered  41,  in  Cornhill,  is  said  to 
stand  on  the  site  of  the  one  in  which,  on  the  26th 
of  December,  1716,  Gray,  the  poet,  first  saw  the 
light. 

On  the  south  side  of  Cornhill  is  St.  Michael's 
Alley,  so  called  from  St.  Michael's  Church,  the 
tower  of  which  is  so  conspicuous  an  ornament  of 
this  part  of  London.  In  this  alley,  opposite  the 
church,  stood,  in  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth, 
the  first  coffee-house  established  in  London.  Ac- 
cordingy  to  Aubrey,  it  was  opened  about  the  year 
1652  by  one  Bowman,  coachman  to  Mr.  Hodges, 
a  Turkey  merchant,  by  whom  Bowman  was  induced 
to  undertake  the  speculation.  An  original  hand- 
bill, discovered  by  the  late  Mr.  D'Israeli,  sets  forth : 


204  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

"The  vertue  of  the  coffee-drink,  first  publiquely 
made  and  sold  in  England,  by  Pasqua  Rosee,  in 
St.  Michael's  Alley,  Cornhill,  at  the  sign  of  his 
own  head."  This  Pasqua  Rosee,  it  would  seem, 
was  a  Greek  servant  whom  the  merchant  had 
brought  to  England  with  him.  In  a  curious 
broadside,  entitled  "  A  Cup  of  Coffee,  or  Coffee 
in  Its  Colours"  [1663],  the  writer  ridicules  the 
new  fashion  as  both  a  very  effeminate  innovation 
—  a  very  indifferent  substitute  for  that  "  sublime 
Canary,"  which  warmed  the  souls  of  Ben  Jonson, 
Beaumont,  and  Fletcher : 

"  For  men  and  Christians  to  turn  Turks,  and  think 
To  excuse  the  crime,  because  'tis  in  their  drink ! 
Pure  English  apes !  ye  may,  for  aught  I  know, 
Were  it  the  mode,  —  learn  to  eat  spiders  too. 
Should  any  of  your  grandsires'  ghosts  appear, 
In  your  wax-candle  circles,  and  but  hear 
The  name  of  Coffee  so  much  called  upon, 
Then  see  it  drank  like  scalding  Phlegethon ; 
Would  they  not  startle,  think  ye  ?  all  agreed 
'Twas  conjuration  both  in  word  and  deed ! "  etc. 

Among  other  numerous  broadsides  which  were 
thundered  forth  against  the  new  drink  may  be 
mentioned  "  The  Women's  Petition  against  Cof- 
fee" [1674],  where  a  complaint  is  preferred  that 
"it  made  men  as  unfruitful  as  the  deserts  whence 
that  unhappy  berry  is  said  to  be  brought ;  that  the 
offspring  of  our  mighty  ancestors  would  dwindle 
into  a  succession  of  apes  and  pigmies ;  and,  on  a 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  205 

domestic  message,  a  husband  would  stop  by  the 
way  to  drink  a  couple  of  cups  of  coffee." 

Close  by,  in  Exchange  Alley,  on  the  south  side 
of  Cornhill,  tea  also  was  first  sold  and  retailed  for 
the  cure  of  all  disorders,  by  one  Thomas  Garway, 
tobacconist  and  coffee-man,  whose  name  is  still 
preserved  in  the  well-known  Garraway's  Coffee- 
house. The  following  handbill,  as  the  late  Mr. 
D'Israeli  very  justly  observes,  is  more  curious 
than  any  historical  account  which  we  possess  of 
its  introduction. 

"  Tea  in  England  hath  been  sold  in  the  leaf  for 
six  pounds,  and  sometimes  for  ten  pounds  the  pound 
weight,  and  in  respect  of  its  former  scarceness  and 
dearness  it  hath  been  only  used  as  a  regalia  in  high 
treatments  and  entertainments,  and  presents  made 
thereof  to  princes  and  grandees,  till  the  year  1657. 
The  said  Garway  did  purchase  a  quantity  thereof, 
and  first  publicly  sold  the  said  tea  in  leaf,  or  drink, 
made  according  to  the  directions  of  the  most 
knowing  merchants  into  those  Eastern  countries. 
On  the  knowledge  of  the  said  Garway's  continued 
care  and  industry  in  obtaining  the  best  tea,  and 
making  drink  thereof,  very  many  noblemen,  physi- 
cians, merchants,  etc.,  have  ever  since  sent  to  him 
for  the  said  leaf,  and  daily  resort  to  his  house  to 
drink  the  drink  thereof.  He  sells  tea  from  i6s. 
to  50-$-.  a  pound." 

In  St.  Michael's  Alley,  as  we  have  already 
mentioned,  stands  the  church  of  St.  Michael,  Corn- 


206  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

hill,  dedicated  to  the  Archangel  Michael.  Although 
a  place  of  worship  appears  to  have  existed  on  the 
spot  previously  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  we  have 
no  distinct  notice  of  it  till  the  commencement  of 
the  twelfth  century,  when  we  find  the  Abbot  of 
Covesham  making  a  grant  of  it  to  one  Sperling,  a 
priest,  on  condition  of  his  paying  an  annual  rent  of 
one  mark  to  the  said  abbot,  and  providing  him  with 
lodging,  salt,  water,  and  fire,  during  his  occasional 
visits  to  London.  The  old  church,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  tower,  having  been  destroyed  by  the 
great  fire,  in  1672  the  present  building  was  erected 
after  designs  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  Half  a 
century  afterward,  the  tower  was  also  found  to  be 
in  a  ruinous  state,  and  accordingly  it  was  taken 
down,  and  rebuilt  in  1721. 

The  interior  of  St.  Michael's  Church  is  in  the 
Italian  style  of  architecture,  divided  into  a  nave 
and  aisles  by  Doric  columns  and  arches.  By  a 
strange  anomaly,  the  tower  is  Gothic,  being  of  that 
florid,  or  perpendicular  style,  which  distinguished 
the  latest  period  of  pointed  architecture  in  Eng- 
land. This  noble  tower  —  faulty  only  in  its  occa- 
sional details,  where  the  architect  has  mingled  the 
Italian  with  the  Gothic  style  —  is  130  feet  in 
height,  and  is  said  to  have  been  built  in  imitation 
of  the  beautiful  chapel  tower  of  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford,  erected  in  the  fifteenth  century.  In  the 
old  church  were  interred  the  remains  of  the  well- 
known  chronicler,  Robert  Fabian,  a  sheriff  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  207 

alderman  of  London,  who  died  in  1511.  Here  also 
lie  the  remains  of  Thomas  Stow  the  father,  and  of 
Thomas  Stow  the  grandfather,  of  the  celebrated 
antiquary.  The  former  died  in  1559,  the  latter  in 
1 5  26.  Stow  himself  was  born  in  the  parish  of  St. 
Michael's  about  the  year  1525  ;  and  here  his  ances- 
tors, for  at  least  three  generations,  resided  as 
citizens  and  tradesmen.1 

The  Standard  in  Cornhill  stood  about  the  centre 
of  the  spot  where  Cornhill  and  Leadenhall  Street 

1  The  will  of  Stow's  grandfather,  who  describes  himself  as 
Citizen  and  Tallow-chandler,  has  been  preserved  by  Strype,  and  is 
in  many  respects  curious.  After  bequeathing  his  soul  "  to  Jesus 
Christ  and  our  blessed  Lady,  St.  Mary  the  Virgin,"  and  directing 
that  his  body  shall  be  buried  "in  the  little  green  churchyard  of 
the  parish  church  of  St.  Michael  in  Cornhill,  between  the  cross 
and  the  church  wall,"  he  proceeds,  "  I  bequeath  to  the  high  altar 
of  the  aforesaid  church,  for  my  tithes  forgotten,  \zd.  Item  to 
Jesu's  Brotherhood,  I2d.  I  give  to  our  Lady  and  St. Broth- 
erhood, I2d.  I  give  to  St.  Christopher  and  St.  George,  \2d. 
Also  I  give  to  the  seven  altars  in  the  church  aforesaid,  in  the 
worship  of  the  seven  Sacraments,  every  year  during  three  years, 
2od.  Item  51.  to  have  on  every  altar  a  watching-candle,  burning 
from  six  of  the  clock  until  it  be  past  seven,  in  worship  of  the 
seven  Sacraments  ;  and  this  candle  shall  begin  to  burn,  and  to  be 
set  upon  the  altar  from  All  Hallowen-day  till  it  be  Candlemas- 
day  following ;  and  it  shall  be  a  watching-candle,  of  eight  in  the 
pound.  Also  I  give  to  the  Brotherhood  of  Clerks  to  drink, 
2od.  Also,  I  give  to  them  that  shall  bear  me  to  Church,  every 
man  ^d.  Also,  I  give  to  a  poor  man  or  woman  every  Sunday  in 
one  year,  id.  to  say  five  Paternosters  and  Aves  and  a  Creed  for 
my  soul.  Also,  I  give  to  the  reparations  of  Paul's  8d.  Also,  I 
will  have  six  new  torches,  and  two  torches  of  St.  Michael,  and 
two  of  St.  Anne,  and  two  of  St.  Christopher,  and  two  of  Jesus, 
of  the  best  torches." 


208  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

are  intersected  by  Gracechurch  Street  and  Bish- 
opsgate  Street.     It  consisted  of  a  large  conduit, 
whence  water  spouted  at  four  points,  which  was 
conveyed  from  the  Thames  by  means  of   leaden 
pipes.     It  was  completed  in   1582,  but  though  it 
continued  for  many  years  to  be  an  ornament  to  the 
city,  it  had  ceased  to  be  used  as  a  conduit  in  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  James  the  First.     From 
the  Standard   in  Cornhill,   as   testified   by   many 
milestones  in  the  suburbs  of  London,  it  was  long 
the  custom  to  measure  distances  into  the  country. 
On  the  south  side  of  Cornhill  stands  a  church 
dedicated  to  St.  Peter  the  Apostle,  which,  beyond 
its  great  antiquity,  possesses  no  particular  feature 
of  interest.    According  to  an  inscription  on  a  brass 
plate   still  preserved   in   the   vestry-room,    it  was 
founded  as  early  as  the  year  179,  yet  we  find  no 
written  mention  of  it  till  the  year  1235,  when  it 
afforded  a  sanctuary  to  one  Geoffrey  Russel,  who 
was  accused  of  having  been  concerned  in  a  murder 
which  had  been  perpetrated  in  St.  Paul's  church- 
yard.    The  old  church  having  been  destroyed  by 
the  fire  of  London,  the  present  edifice  was  erected 
in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  by  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren.    It  reflects  but  little  credit  on  the  gen- 
ius of  that  great  artist.    The  only  monument  in  the 
church  of  any  interest  is  a  small  tablet,  which  re- 
cords the  melancholy  death  by  fire,  on  the  i8th  of 
January,  1782,  of  the  seven  children  of  James  and 
Mary  Woodmason,  of  Leadenhall  Street.    We  must 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  209 

not,  however,  omit  to  record,  as  associated  with  this 
church,  one  revered  name,  that  of  the  learned  and 
conscientious  Dr.  William  Beveridge,  afterward 
Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  who  was  presented  to  the 
living  in  1672. 

The  Royal  Exchange,  on  the  north  side  of 
Cornhill,  was  originally  founded  and  built  at  the 
expense  of  the  munificent  Sir  Thomas  Gresham, 
on  a  spot  of  ground  presented  to  him  for  the  pur- 
pose by  the  city  of  London.  He  himself  laid  the 
first  stone  on  the  7th  of  June,  1566.  Previously 
to  its  erection,  as  we  are  told,  the  merchants  of 
London  were  "  more  like  pedlars  than  merchants, 
either  walking  and  talking  in  an  open  narrow  street, 
enduring  all  extremity  of  weather,"  or  standing  for 
shelter  under  gateways  and  doorways.  The  street 
here  alluded  to  was  Lombard  Street,  where  the 
merchants  of  London  were  anciently  accustomed 
to  meet  for  the  transaction  of  business.  Sir 
Thomas  Gresham's  new  and  magnificent  edifice 
was  completed  in  November,  1567,  and  styled  by 
the  foreign  title  of  "the  Bourse."  The  upper  part 
of  the  building  was  appropriated  to  shops ;  the 
area  and  piazzas  below  being  set  apart  for  the  use 
of  the  merchants. 

On  the  23d  of  January,  1570-71,  we  find  Queen 
Elizabeth  proceeding  in  great  state  from  her  palace 
at  Somerset  House  to  visit  the  new  Bourse,  the 
bells  in  every  part  of  the  city  sending  forth  their 
merry  peals  during  her  progress.  "  The  queen's 


210  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

majesty,"  writes  Stow,  "attended  with  her  nobility, 
came  from  her  house  at  the  Strand,  called  Somerset 
House,  and  entered  the  city  by  Temple  Bar, 
through  Fleet  Street,  Cheap,  and  so  by  the  north 
side  of  the  Bourse,  through  Threeneedle  Street,  to 
Sir  Thomas  Greshafh's  house  in  Bishopsgate  Street, 
where  she  dined.  After  dinner,  her  Majesty,  re- 
turning through  Cornhill,  entered  the  Bourse  on  the 
south  side,  and  after  that  she  had  viewed  every  part 
thereof,  above  the  ground,  especially  the  '  Pawn,' 
which  was  richly  furnished  with  all  sorts  of  the 
finest  wares  in  the  city,  she  caused  the  same 
Bourse,  by  a  herald  and  trumpet,  to  be  proclaimed 
the  Royal  Exchange,  and  so  to  be  called  from 
thenceforth,  and  not  otherwise." 

In  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  while  the 
Tower  was  yet  a  royal  residence,  and  the  houses 
of  many  of  the  nobility  stood  in  the  adjoining 
streets,  the  "  Pawn,"1  or  bazaar,  alluded  to  in  the 
foregoing  extract,  was  the  most  fashionable  loung- 
ing-place  in  London.  It  consisted  of  the  upper 
part  of  the  building,  where  rich  and  costly  goods 
of  every  description  were  exposed  for  sale. 

In  the  daytime  the  favourite  place  of  promenade 
and  gossip  was  one  of  the  aisles-  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  which  from  this  circumstance  was  styled 
Paul's  Walk,  as  also  were  its  frequenters  styled 
Paul  Walkers.  The  Exchange,  however,  being 

1  This  name  is  said  to  be  derived  from  the  German  word  bahn, 
in  Dutch  baan,  signifying  a  path  or  walk. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  211 

lighted  up  till  ten  o'clock  at  night,  the  idlers  of 
St.  Paul's  usually  found  their  way  in  the  evening 
to  the  "  Pawn  "  in  the  Royal  Exchange.  Here  used 
to  assemble  a  motley  group,  consisting  of  foreign- 
ers of  every  variety  of  language  and  costume, 
merchants,  the  wives  of  peers  and  citizens,  court- 
iers, and  adventurers  of  every  class,  many  of  the 
latter  being  without  any  fixed  means  of  subsist- 
ence. Such  were  the  class  of  persons,  who,  in  the 
reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James  the  First,  from  their 
frequenting  Paul's  Walk  in  the  daytime,  were  said 
to  dine  with  Duke  Humphrey ;  and  from  their 
lounging  in  the  Exchange  at  night  were  said  to 
sup  with  Sir  Thomas  Gresham.  For  instance, 
Hayman,  in  1628,  thus  addresses  an  epigram  in 
his  "  Quodlibets  "  to  Sir  Pierce  Pennilesse : 

"  Though  little  coin  thy  purseless  pockets  line, 
Yet  with  great  company  thou'rt  taken  up ; 
For  often  with  Duke  Humphrey  thou  dost  dine 
And  often  with  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  sup." 

Samuel  Rolle,  speaking  of  the  temptations  held 
out  by  the  "  Pawn  "  before  its  destruction  by  the 
great  fire,  observes  :  "  What  artificial  thing  was 
there  that  could  entertain  the  senses,  or  the 
fantasies  of  men,  that  was  not  there  to  be  had  ? 
Such  was  the  delight  that  many  gallants  took  in 
that  magazine  of  all  curious  varieties,  that  they 
could  almost  have  dwelt  there,  going  from  shop  to 
shop  like  bees  from  flower  to  flower,  if  they  had 


212  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

but  had  a  fountain  of  money  that  could  not  have 
been  drawn  dry." 

Again,  in  a  little  work  by  Daniel  Lupton,  en- 
titled "  London  and  the  Country  Carbonadoed " 
[1632],  we  find :  "  Here  are  usually  more  coaches 
attendant  than  at  church  doors.  The  merchants 
should  keep  their  wives  from  visiting  the  upper 
rooms  too  often,  lest  they  tire  their  purses  by 
attiring  themselves.  There's  many  gentlewomen 
come  hither,  that,  to  help  their  faces  and  com- 
plexions, break  their  husband's  backs ;  who  play 
foul  in  the  country  with  their  land,  to  be  fair  and 
play  false  in  the  city." 

Exactly  a  century  after  the  laying  of  the  first 
stone,  the  Royal  Exchange  perished  in  the  great 
fire.  In  the  words  of  an  eye-witness  of  its  de- 
struction. -- —  the  Rev.  T.  Vincent,  —  "  When  the 
fire  was  entered,  how  quickly  did  it  run  round 
the  galleries,  filling  them  with  flames ;  then,  de- 
scending the  stairs,  encompassed  the  walks,  giving 
forth  flaming  volleys,  and  filling  the  courts  with 
sheets  of  fire ;  by  and  by  the  statues  of  the  kings 
fell  all  down  upon  their  faces,  and  the  greatest 
part  of  the  building  after  them,  with  such  a  noise 
as  was  dreadful  and  astonishing,  the  founder's  only 
remaining."  The  singular  fact  of  the  statues  of  a 
long  line  of  kings  having  been  destroyed  by  the 
fire,  while  that  of  the  founder  of  the  Exchange,  Sir 
Thomas  Gresham,  remained  uninjured,  is  recorded 
by  two  other  eye-witnesses  of  the  conflagration, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  213 

Evelyn  and  Pepys.  It  is  still  more  remarkable  that 
on  the  second  destruction  of  the  Royal  Exchange 
by  fire,  in  1838,  the  statue  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham 
should  again  have  escaped  uninjured. 

It  was  not  long  after  the  destruction  of  the  old 
Exchange,  that  a  new  and  still  more  magnificent 
edifice  was  commenced,  at  the  expense  of  the  mer- 
chants of  London,  with  a  small  addition  from  the 
Gresham  Fund.  Charles  the  Second,  who  took 
considerable  interest  in  its  progress,  presided  at 
the  ceremony  of  laying  the  first  stone,  on  which 
occasion  he  partook  of  a  collation  prepared  under  a 
temporary  building  on  the  spot.  Pepys  inserts  in 
his  "  Diary,"  on  the  23d  of  October,  1667  :  "  Sir  W. 
Penn  and  I  back  into  London,  and  there  saw  the 
king,  with  his  kettle-drums  and  trumpets,  going  to 
the  Exchange,  to  lay  the  first  stone  of  the  first 
pillar  ;  which,  the  gates  being  shut,  I  could  not  get 
in  to  see.  So,  with  Sir  W.  Penn  to  Captain 
Cockes,  and  thence  again  toward  Westminster; 
but  in  my  way  stopped  at  the  Exchange  and  got 
in,  the  king  being  newly  gone,  and  there  find  the 
bottom  of  the  first  pillar  laid  ;  that  on  the  west 
side  of  the  north  entrance ;  and  here  was  a  shed 
set  up,  and  hung  with  tapestry,  and  a  canopy  of 
state,  and  some  good  victuals  and  wine  for  the 
king."  The  Exchange  was  finally  completed,  and 
opened  for  the  purposes  of  business,  on  the  28th 
of  September,  1669. 

In  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  the  bazaar  in  the 


214  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Royal  Exchange  was  still  a  tempting  and  fashion- 
able lounging-place.  Sir  Richard  Steele,  for  in- 
stance, in  a  paper  in  the  Spectator  (No.  454), 
writes  :  "  It  was  not  the  least  of  my  satisfaction 
in  my  survey,  to  go  up-stairs,  and  pass  the  shops 
of  agreeable  females.  To  observe  so  many  pretty 
hands  busy  in  the  folding  of  ribbons,  and  the  ut- 
most eagerness  of  agreeable  faces  in  the  sale  of 
patches,  pins,  and  wires,  on  each  side  of  the  coun- 
ters, was  an  amusement  in  which  I  could  longer 
have  indulged  myself,  had  not  the  dear  creatures 
called  to  me  to  ask  what  I  wanted,  when  I  could 
not  answer,  '  Only  to  look  at  you.' ' 

To  the  graceful  pen  of  Addison  we  are  indebted 
for  a  still  more  interesting  notice  of  the  Royal 
Exchange  at  this  period.  "  There  is  no  place  in 
the  town,"  he  writes,  "  which  I  so  much  love  to 
frequent  as  the  Royal  Exchange.  It  gives  me  a 
secret  satisfaction  and  in  some  measure  gratifies 
my  vanity,  as  I  am  an  Englishman,  to  see  so  rich 
an  assembly  of  countrymen  and  foreigners  con- 
sulting together  upon  the  private  business  of 
mankind,  and  making  this  metropolis  a  kind  of 
emporium  for  the  whole  earth.  I  must  confess  I 
look  upon  high-' change  to  be  a  great  council,  in 
Which  all  considerable  nations  have  their  represent- 
atives. Factors  in  the  trading  world  are  what  am- 
bassadors are  in  the  politic  world ;  they  negotiate 
affairs,  conclude  treaties,  and  maintain  a  good  cor- 
respondence between  those  wealthy  societies  of 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  215 

men  that  are  divided  from  one  another  by  seas  and 
oceans,  or  live  on  the  different  extremities  of  a 
continent.  I  have  often  been  pleased  to  hear  dis- 
putes adjusted  between  an  inhabitant  of  Japan  and 
an  alderman  of  London  ;  or  to  see  a  subject  of  the 
Great  Mogul  entering  into  a  league  with  one  of 
the  Czar  of  Muscovy.  I  am  infinitely  delighted 
in  mixing  with  these  several  ministers  of  com- 
merce, as  they  are  distinguished  by  their  different 
.walks  and  different  languages.  Sometimes  I  am 
jostled  among  a  body  of  Armenians  ;  sometimes  I 
am  lost  in  a  crowd  of  Jews ;  and  sometimes  make 
one  in  a  group  of  Dutchmen.  I  am  a  Dane, 
Swede,  or  Frenchman,  at  different  times  ;  or,  rather, 
fancy  myself  like  the  old  philosopher,  who,  upon 
being  asked  what  countryman  he  was,  replied  that 
he  was  a  citizen  of  the  world." 

It  was  not  long  after  Addison  wrote  that  the 
glory  of  the  once  fashionable  "  Pawn,"  or  bazaar, 
in  the  Royal  Exchange,  began  to  decline,  and  be- 
fore thirty  years  had  elapsed  it  had  passed  away 
forever.  Maitland,  writing  in  1739,  speaks  of  it 
as  having  been  "  of  late  stored  with  the  richest  and 
choicest  sorts  of  merchandise  ;  but  the  same  being 
now  forsaken,  it  appears  like  a  wilderness."  The 
Exchange  was  again  burnt  down  on  the  night  of 
the  roth  of  January,  1838. 

The  present  Royal  Exchange  was  built  after 
designs  of  William  Tite,  and  was  opened  by  her 
present  Majesty  in  person,  28th  of  October,  1844. 


216  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

The   pediment   is   the   work  of   R.    Westmacott, 
R.  A.     The  cost  of  the  edifice  is  said  to  have  been 

;£  I  80,000. 

In  Change  Alley  stood  Jonathan's  Coffee  House, 
mentioned  in  the  Tatler  (No.  38)  as  "the  gen- 
eral mart  for  stock  jobbers,"  and  where  Mrs.  Cent- 
livre  has  laid  a  scene  in  "A  Bold  Stroke  for  a 
Wife."  In  Freeman's  Court,  then  at  the  east  end 
of  the  Royal  Exchange,  Daniel  Defoe  carried  on 
for  many  years  the  business  of  an  hosefactor. 

Cornhill  leads  us  into  Threadneedle,  or,  as  Stow 
calls  it,  Three-needle  Street.  At  a  later  period  we 
find  it  called  Thridneedle  Street ;  at  least,  so  the 
learned  divine,  Samuel  Clarke,  styles  it,  in  writing 
from  his  study  in  Threadneedle  Street.  In  this 
street  the  great  Sir  Thomas  More  was  educated, 
under  a  schoolmaster  of  high  reputation,  previously 
to  his  being  removed  into  the  family  of  Cardinal 
Morton,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  subse- 
quently to  Christchurch  College,  Oxford.1  Here 
also  resided  the  grandfather  and  father  of  Sir 
Philip  Sydney. 

On  the  south  side  of  Threadneedle  Street  stood, 
till  recently,  the  ancient  church  of  St.  Benedict, 
vulgarly  called  St.  Benet  Fink.  It  was  rebuilt  by 

1  Sir  Thomas  More  was  educated  at  the  Hospital  or  Free 
School  of  St.  Anthony,  Threadneedle  Street.  The  hospital  was 
suppressed  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  but  the  school, 
though  "sore  decayed,"  still  existed  in  the  time  of  Stow.  It 
stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  Hall  of  Commerce.  Archbishop 
Whitgift  was  also  educated  here. 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  217 

one  Robert  Finck,  or  Finch,  from  whom  it  derives 
its  name,  as  does  also  Finch  Lane,  in  which  he 
resided.  Having  been  destroyed  by  the  great  fire, 
the  church  was  shortly  afterward  rebuilt  from  de- 
signs by  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  It  continued 
standing  till  the  year  1 846,  when  it  was  demolished, 
in  order  to  make  room  for  the  improvements  con- 
nected with  the  erection  of  the  new  Royal  Ex- 
change. The  materials  were  sold  by  auction,  and 
the  funeral  monuments  removed  to  the  church  of 
St.  Peter-le-Poor,  with  which  parish  St.  Benet  Fink 
is  now  united.  It  appears  by  the  parish  registers 
that  the  marriage  of  the  celebrated  non-conform- 
ist, Richard  Baxter,  with  Margaret  Charlton,  took 
place  here  on  the  loth  of  September,  1662.  Here 
also  was  interred,  in  1723,  Mrs.  Manley,  well 
known  from  her  remarkable  personal  history,  and 
as  the  authoress  of  "  The  New  Atalantis." 

Another  church  in  this  neighbourhood,  which 
was  demolished  under  the  same  circumstances,  was 
that  of  St.  Bartholomew  by  the  Exchange,  rebuilt 
in  1438,  and  again,  after  designs  by  Sir  Christopher 
Wren,  in  1679.  Here  were  interred  the  remains 
of  Miles  Coverdale,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  who  assisted 
Tyndale  in  the  first  English  translation  of  the 
Bible.  On  the  demolition  of  the  church,  his  re- 
mains were  removed  to  that  of  St.  Magnus,  London 
Bridge,  of  which  he  was  for  two  years  the  rector. 

In  Threadneedle  Street,  nearly  opposite  to  Finch 
Lane,  stood  the  ancient  Hospital,  or  Priory,  of  St. 


2i8  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Anthony  of  Vienna,  in  the  brethren  of  which,  till 
1474,  the  patronage  of  St.  Benet's  Church  was 
vested.  In  this  street  also  stands  the  Bank  of 
England,  which  was  established  on  this  spot  in 
1 734,  previously  to  which  period  the  business  was 
transacted  in  Grocers'  Hall.  To  make  room  for 
part  of  the  present  buildings,  the  old  but  uninter- 
esting church  of  St.  Christopher  —  founded  in 
1462,  and  one  of  the  few  which  escaped  the  fire 
of  London  —  was  taken  down  in  1781. 

During  the  Gordon  Riots,  in  1780,  a  bold  at- 
tempt was  made  to  sack  the  Bank  of  England,  but, 
in  the  words  of  Pennant,  it  was  "  saved  from  the 
fury  of  an  infamous  mob  by  the  virtue  of  the  citi- 
zens, who  formed  suddenly  a  volunteer  company, 
and  overawed  the  miscreants,  while  the  chief  mag- 
istrate skulked  trembling  in  his  mansion-house,  and 
left  his  important  charge  to  its  fate."  Here, 
and  on  Blackfriars  Bridge,  the  principal  conflict 
and  slaughter  took  place  on  the  last  day  of  the 
riots.  "  The  carnage,"  says  Wraxall,  "  which  took 
place  at  the  bank  was  great,  though  not  of  very 
long  duration ;  and  in  order  to  conceal,  as  much 
as  possible,  the  magnitude  of  the  number,  as  well 
as  the  names  of  the  persons  who  perished,  similar 
precautions  were  taken  on  both  sides.  All  the 
dead  bodies,  being  carried  away  during  the  night, 
were  precipitated  into  the  river.  Even  the  im- 
pressions made  by  the  musket-balls,  on  the  houses 
opposite  to  the  bank,  were  as  much  as  possible 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  219 

-erased  on  the  following  morning,  and  the  buildings 
whitewashed.  Government  and  the  rioters  seem 
to  have  felt  an  equal  disposition,  by  drawing  a  veil 
over  the  extent  of  the  calamity,  to  bury  it  in  pro- 
found darkness.  To  Colonel  Holroyd,  since  de- 
servedly raised  to  the  British  peerage  as  Lord 
Sheffield,  and  to  his  regiment  of  militia,  the  coun- 
try was  eminently  indebted  for  repelling  the  fury 
of  the  mob  at  the  bank,  where,  during  some 
moments,  the  conflict  seemed  doubtful,  and  the 
assailants  had  nearly  forced  an  entrance." 

"  I  was  told,"  continues  Wraxall,  "  by  the  late 
Lord  Rodney,  who  was  then  an  officer  in  the 
guards,  that  having  been  sent,  on  the  night  of 
the  /th  of  June,  to  the  defence  of  the  Bank  of 
England,  at  the  head  of  a  detachment  of  his  regi- 
ment, he  there  found  Lord  George  Gordon,  who 
appeared  anxiously  endeavouring,  by  expostulation, 
to  induce  the  populace  to  retire.  As  soon  as  Lord 
George  saw  Captain  Rodney,  he  strongly  expressed 
his  concern  at  the  acts  of  violence  committed ; 
adding  that  he  was  ready  to  take  his  stand  by 
Captain  Rodney's  side,  and  to  expose  his  person 
to  the  utmost  risk,  in  order  to  resist  such  pro- 
ceedings. Rodney,  however,  who  distrusted  his 
sincerity,  and  justly  considered  him  as  the  original 
cause  of  all  the  calamities,  declined  any  communi- 
cation with  him  ;  only  exhorting  him,  if  he  wished 
to  stop  the  further  effusion  of  blood,  and  to  pre- 
vent the  destruction  of  the  bank,  to  exert  himself 


220  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

in  dispersing  the  furious  crowd ;  but,  whatever 
might  be  his  inclination,  he  was  altogether  desti- 
tute of  the  power." 

At  the  east  end  of  Threadneedle  Street,  on  the 
south  side,  stands  the  hall  of  the  Merchant  Tay- 
lors. This  wealthy  company,  though  not  the  first 
in  point  of  precedence,  is  said  to  number  more 
royal  and  noble  personages  among  its  members 
than  any  other  of  the  city  companies.  From  the 
occupation  which  they  carried  on  here,  Thread- 
needle  Street  derives  its  name.  They  were  orig- 
inally incorporated  in  1466  with  the  designation 
of  "Taylors  and  Linen-armourers."  This  name 
they  retained  till  1 503,  when  Henry  the  Seventh, 
himself  a  member  of  the  company,  reincorporated 
them  under  their  present  title  of  "  Merchant  Tay- 
lors "  of  the  fraternity  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  in 
the  city  of  London. 

Although  not  actually  formed  into  a  corporate 
body  till  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Fourth,  we  find 
a  society  of  Merchant  Taylors  existing  as  far  back 
as  the  time  of  Henry  the  Third,  in  which  reign  a 
violent  feud  existed  between  them  and  the  Gold- 
smiths' Company.  To  such  lengths  did  it  proceed, 
that  they  at  last  agreed  to  meet  at  night,  com- 
pletely armed,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred 
men,  and  to  settle  their  disputes  with  the  sword. 
Accordingly  an  encounter  took  place  in  the  dead 
of  night,  in  which  many  were  killed  and  wounded 
on  both  sides,  nor  did  they  separate  till  the 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  221 

sheriffs,  with  a  large  body  of  citizens,  arrived  on  the 
spot  and  apprehended  the  ringleaders,  thirteen  of 
whom  were  subsequently  condemned  and  executed. 
The  present  Merchant  Taylors'  Hall  was  rebuilt 
after  the  fire  of  London,  and  contains  afew  his- 
torical portraits  of  some  merit. 

Dependent  on  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company 
is  the  celebrated  school  which  bears  their  name. 
It  was  founded  by  the  company  in  1561,  on  a 
spot  of  ground  on  the  east  side  of  Suffolk  Lane, 
Thames  Street,  formerly  called  the  "  Manor  of 
the  Rose,"  the  property  of  the  Dukes  of  Bucking- 
ham. Several  eminent  men  have  received  their 
education  at  this  school,  among  whom  may  be 
mentioned  James  Shirley,  the  dramatic  poet,  Bui- 
strode  Whitelocke,  the  author  of  the  "  Memorials 
of  English  Affairs,"  Edmund  Calamy,  the  non- 
conformist, and  the  great  Lord  Clive. 

In  Threadneedle  Street  was  the  South  Sea 
House,  celebrated  in  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century  for  one  of  the  most  iniquitous  bubbles 
in  the  annals  of  roguery.  The  company  was 
established  by  act  of  Parliament  in  1711,  under 
the  title  of  "  The  Company  of  Merchants  of  Great 
Britain  trading  to  the  South  Seas  and  other  parts 
of  America,  and  for  encouraging  the  Fishery." 
Their  ostensible  object  was  the  monopoly  of  the 
trade  to  the  South  Seas,  and  the  supplying  Span- 
ish America  with  negroes.  The  building  is  now 
divided  into  suites  of  chambers. 


222  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

From  Threadneedle  Street  let  us  pass  into 
Throgmorton  Street,  which  not  improbably  de- 
rives its  designation  from  the  family  name  of 
the  accomplished  Sir  Nicholas  Throckmorton,  who, 
from  the  circumstance  of  his  having  been  buried 
in  the  neighbouring  church  of  St.  Catherine  Cree, 
very  possibly  resided  in  this  vicinity.  On  the 
north  side  of  Throgmorton  Street  stood,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  a  magnificent  mansion, 
erected  by  the  ill-fated  Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of 
Essex.  In  carrying  out  his  favourite  project  of  en- 
larging and  beautifying  his  new  domain,  the  great 
minister  showed  a  disregard  for  the  rights  and  com- 
forts of  his  fellow  citizens  which  is  curiously  illus- 
trative of  the  arbitrary  power  of  a  royal  favourite 
under  the  rule  of  the  Tudors.  "  This  house  being 
finished,"  says  Stow,  "and  having  some  reason- 
able plot  of  ground  left  for  a  garden,  he  (Cromwell) 
caused  the  pales  of  the  gardens  adjoining  to  the 
north  part  thereof  on  a  sudden  to  be  taken  down, 
twenty-two  feet  to  be  measured  forth  right  into 
the  north  of  every  man's  ground,  a  line  there  to 
be  drawn,  a  trench  to  be  cast,  a  foundation  laid, 
and  a  high  brick  wall  to  be  built.  My  father  had 
a  garden  there,  and  a  house  standing  close  to  his 
south  pale.  This  house  they  loosed  from  the 
ground,  and  bare  upon  rollers  into  my  father's 
garden  twenty-two  feet,  ere  my  father  heard 
thereof.  No  warning  was  given  him,  nor  other  an- 
swer, when  he  spoke  to  the  surveyors  of  that  work, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  223 

but  that  their  master,  Sir  Thomas,  commanded 
them  so  to  do.  No  man  durst  go  to  argue  the 
matter  but  each  man  lost  his  land  ;  and  my  father 
paid  his  whole  rent,  which  was  six  shillings  and 
eight  pence  the  year,  for  that  half  which  was  left." 

After  the  fall  of  Cromwell,  his  mansion  and 
gardens  were  purchased  of  the  Crown  by  the 
Drapers'  Company,  whose  hall  now  occupies  their 
site.  It  was  from  this  company  that  the  first  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  Henry  Fitz-alwyn,  was  elected. 
In  their  hall  is  a  large  and  interesting  picture,  as- 
cribed to  Zuchero,  said  to  represent  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots  and  her  son,  afterward  James  the  First. 
As  the  unfortunate  queen,  however,  never  beheld 
her  child  after  he  was  a  twelvemonth  old,  the  por- 
trait, of  course,  could  not  have  been  drawn  from 
the  life. 

Lothbury,  a  continuation  of  Throgmorton  Street, 
was,  according  to  Stow,  anciently  called  Lathberie 
or  Loadberie,  probably  from  the  name  of  some 
person  who  kept  a  court  or  "  berry  "  here.  "  This 
street,"  says  Stow,  "  is  possessed  for  the  most  part 
by  founders  that  cast  candlesticks,  chafing-dishes, 
spice-mortars,  and  such  like  copper  or  laton  works, 
and  do  afterward  turn  them  with  the  foot,  and  not 
with  the  wheel,  to  make  them  smooth  and  bright 
with  turning  and  scrating  (as  some  do  term  it), 
making  a  lothsome  noise  to  the  by-passers,  that 
have  not  been  used  to  the  like,  and  therefore  by 
them  disdainfully  called  Loth-berie." 


224  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

"  This  night  I'll  change 
All  that  is  metal,  in  my  house,  to  gold : 
And  early  in  the  morning  will  I  send 
To  all  the  plumbers  and  the  pewterers, 
To  buy  their  tin  and  lead  up ;  and  to  Lothbury 
For  all  the  copper." 

—  Ben  Jonson,  The  Alchemist. 

This  street,  as  well  as  the  narrow  and  populous 
thoroughfares  adjoining  it,  appear  to  have  suffered 
dreadfully  during  the  visitation  of  the  great  plague. 
"  In  my  walks,"  writes  Defoe,  "  I  had  many  dismal 
scenes  before  my  eyes,  as  particularly  of  persons 
falling  dead  in  the  streets,  terrible  shrieks  and 
screechings  of  women,  who  in  their  agonies  would 
throw  open  their  chamber  windows,  and  cry  out  in 
a  dismal,  surprising  manner.  Passing  through 
Tokenhouse  yard  in  Lothbury,  of  a  sudden  a  case- 
ment violently  opened  just  over  my  head,  and  a 
woman  gave  three  frightful  screeches,  and  then 
cried,  '  Oh,  death,  death,  death ! '  in  a  most  inimi- 
table tone,  and  which  struck  me  with  horror,  and 
a  chillness  in  my  very  blood.  There  was  nobody 
to  be  seen  in  the  whole  street,  neither  did  any 
other  window  open,  for  people  had  no  curiosity 
now  in  any  case,  nor  could  anybody  help  one 
another.  Just  in  Bell  Alley,  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  passage,  there  was  a  more  terrible  cry  than  that, 
though  it  was  not  so  directed  out  at  the  window ; 
but  the  whole  family  was  in  a  terrible  fright,  and 
I  could  hear  women  and  children  run  screaming 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  225 

about  the  rooms  like  distracted ;  when  a  garret 
window  opened,  and  somebody  from  a  window  on 
the  other  side  the  alley  called  and  asked,  'What 
is  the  matter  ? '  upon  which,  from  the  first  window 
it  was  answered,  '  O  Lord  !  my  old  master  has 
hanged  himself.'  The  other  asked  again,  '  Is  he 
quite  dead?'  and  the  first  answered,  'Ay,  ay, 
quite  dead  and  cold ! '  This  person  was  a  mer- 
chant, and  a  deputy  alderman,  and  very  rich.  But 
this  is  but  one.  It  is  scarce  credible  what  dread- 
ful cases  happened  in  particular  families  every 
day.  People,  in  the  rage  of  the  distemper,  or  in 
the  torment  of  their  swellings,  which  was,  indeed, 
intolerable,  running  out  of  their  own  government, 
raving  and  distracted,  oftentimes  laid  violent 
hands  upon  themselves,  throwing  themselves  out 
at  their  windows,  shooting  themselves,  etc.  ; 
mothers  murdering  their  own  children  in  their 
lunacy  ;  some  dying  of  mere  grief,  as  a  passion  ; 
some  of  mere  fright  and  surprise,  without  any 
infection  at  all ;  others  frighted  into  idiotism  and 
foolish  distractions,  some  into  despair  and  lunacy  ; 
others  into  melancholy  madness." 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  we  find  a 
conduit  erected  in  Lothbury,  which  was  supplied 
with  water  from  "  the  spring  of  Dame  Anne's  the 
Clear,"  at  Hoxton,  but  no  trace  of  it  now  exists. 

Tokenhouse  Yard,  Lothbury,  was  built  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  First,  on  the  site  of  the 
princely  mansion  of  Thomas,  twentieth  Earl  of 


226  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Arundel,  the  collector  of  the  famous  Arundel 
marbles.  He  subsequently  removed  to  a  subur- 
ban mansion  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  of 
which  Arundel  Street  in  the  Strand  points  out 
the  site. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

OLD   JEWRY,    ST.    LAWRENCE    CHURCH,    MANSION 
HOUSE,    LONDON    STONE,    ETC. 

Old  Jewry,  the  Original  Burial-place  of  the  Jews  —  Expulsion  of 
the  Jews — Doctor  Lambe  and  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  — 
St.  Olave's  Church  —  St.  Lawrence  Jewry  —  St.  Thomas  of 
Aeon  —  Gilbert  a  Becket  —  Mercers'  Company  —  The  Poul- 
try—  Mansion  House  —  Stocks  Market  —  Sir  John  Cutler  — 
Bucklersbury  —  Indian  Houses  —  St.  Stephen's  Walbrook  — 
London  Stone  —  Prior  of  Tortington's  "  Inne." 

To  the  west  of  Lothbury  is  the  Old  Jewry,  so 
intimately  associated  with  the  persecution  of  the 
Jews  in  England  during  the  reign  of  our  Norman 
sovereigns.  Previously  to  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
First,  the  only  burial-place  which  the  bigotry  of 
our  ancestors  permitted  to  the  Jews  in  England 
was  in  London,  whither,  in  the  words  of  Holin- 
shed,  they  were  "constrained  to  bring  all  their 
dead  corpses  from  all  parts  of  the  realm."  It  was 
not  till  the  year  1117,  that  they  "obtained  from 
King  Henry  a  grant  to  have  a  place  assigned 
them,  in  every  quarter  where  they  dwelled,  to 
bury  their  dead  bodies."  In  the  Old  Jewry  was 
their  great  synagogue,  and  in  this  quarter  they 

227 


228  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

continued  to  increase  and  multiply  till  1283,  when 
John  Perkham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  com- 
manded the  Bishop  of  London  to  destroy  all  the 
Jews'  synagogues  in  the  metropolis.  Seven  years 
afterward,  Edward  the  First,  on  his  return  from 
France,  issued  his  famous  edict  which  drove  the 
Jews  from  the  kingdom.  The  number  thus  ex- 
pelled is  said  to  have  been  fifteen  thousand  and 
sixty.  Whether  rightfully  or  wrongfully,  they 
were  accused,  not  only  of  having  practised  usury 
to  a  ruinous  extent,  but  also  of  having  adulterated 
the  coin  of  the  realm.  Suddenly,  then,  their 
persons  were  seized  in  every  part  of  England ; 
their  property  was  confiscated,  and  a  moiety  of  it 
only  bestowed  on  those  who  consented  to  embrace 
Christianity.  To  the  honour  of  the  Jews  be  it 
spoken,  that,  notwithstanding  the  temptation  of 
retaining  possession  of  their  darling  gold,  only  a 
few  were  to  be  found  who  consented  to  purchase 
their  lives,  and  all  that  makes  life  palatable,  at  the 
expense  of  their  conscience.  Two  hundred  and 
eighty  were  hanged  in  London  alone.  The  re- 
mainder, after  having  been  stripped  of  their  posses- 
sions, were  driven  forth  to  seek  asylums  in  other 
countries.  It  was  not  till  the  seventeenth  century 
that  the  Jews  again  appeared  in  any  numbers  in 
England. 

The  "  Jewerie,"  as  it  was  styled,  appears  to  have 
extended  along  both  sides  of  what  is  now  Gresham 
Street,  from  St.  Lawrence  Lane  and  the  church 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  229 

of  St.  Lawrence  on  the  west,  to  Basinghall  Street 
and  the  Old  Jewry  on  the  east,  and  southward 
between  the  Old  Jewry  and  Ironmonger  Lane  as 
far  as  Church  Court.  The  detestation  in  which, 
in  the  olden  time,  the  Jews  were  held  by  the 
common  people  of  England  led  to  more  than  one 
furious  attack  on  their  colony  in  the  "  Jewerie." 
In  1 262,  a  quarrel  having  taken  place  in  one  of  the 
neighbouring  churches  between  a  Christian  and  a 
Jew,  in  which  the  Christian  was  mortally  wounded, 
the  Jew  flew  for  refuge  to  his  own  people,  but, 
having  been  overtaken  by  the  neighbours  of  the 
deceased,  was  summarily  put  to  death.  Not  satis- 
fied, however,  with  this  act  of  revenge,  the  infuri- 
ated mob  poured  into  the  "Jewerie,"  and  indis- 
criminately pillaged  and  slew  every  Jew  whom  they 
met.  In  1264,  a  Jew  having  been  convicted  of 
exacting  usurious  interest  from  a  Christian,  another 
irruption  took  place  into  their  colony,  when  their 
synagogue  and  other  valuable  property  were  des- 
troyed. 

But  the  Old  Jewry  has  other  interesting  asso- 
ciations besides  its  connection  with  the  Jews. 
Here,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  unfortunate 
Henry  the  Sixth  had  a  mansion,  which  he  styled 
his  "  principal  palace  in  the  Old  Jewry."  It  was 
a  large  stone  building,  commonly  called  the  "  Old 
Wardrobe,"  and  when  Stow  wrote  had  only  re- 
cently been  demolished. 

Tradition  informs  us  that  at  the  corner  of  Old 


230  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Jewry  and  Cheapside  stood  the  house  in  which 
Thomas  a  Becket  first  saw  the  light.  Here,  too, 
it  was  that  the  infamous  Doctor  Lambe  was  beaten 
and  trampled  to  death  by  an  exasperated  mob. 
This  aged  and  disreputable  mountebank,  who 
united  in  his  own  person  the  professions  of  a 
physician,  a  caster  of  nativities,  and  a  fortune- 
teller, had  been  guilty  of  a  long  catalogue  of 
crimes.  In  1607  he  had  been  found  guilty  of 
sorcery  and  witchcraft,  practised  on  the  body 
of  Thomas,  Lord  Windsor,  and,  agreeably  with 
the  terms  of  his  sentence,  was  undergoing  im- 
prisonment in  the  King's  Bench  Prison,  when  he 
committed  a  still  more  serious  offence,  in  which 
a  little  girl  of  eleven  years  of  age  was  his  victim. 
For  this  latter  crime  he  was  sentenced  to  death, 
but  in  consequence  of  his  possessing  some  secret 
and  powerful  influence  at  court,  which  the  world 
attributed  to  the  unpopular  favourite,  the  first 
George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  he  ob- 
tained a  pardon.  His  death  took  place  in  the 
manner  we  have  stated,  on  the  I3th  of  June, 
1628.  Not  that  the  mob  troubled  themselves 
much  about  his  vices  or  his  crimes :  his  chief 
offence  in  their  eyes  being  his  connection  with 
the  detested  Buckingham.  Yet,  though  men  spoke 
of  him  as  the  "duke's  devil,"  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  Buckingham  ever  even  set  his  eyes  on 
the  wretched  mountebank.  Carte,  for  instance, 
affirms  that  they  never  met,  and  Carte's  assertion 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  231 

is  in  a  great  degree  borne  out  by  a  fact  which  not 
long  since  came  to  light,  that  Lambe  was  at  one 
time  actually  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  against  the 
duke's  life.  At  all  events,  Lambe  owed  his  fear- 
ful death  to  the  current  belief  of  his  intimacy  with 
Buckingham.  Almost  at  the  last  gasp,  he  was 
rescued  by  the  authorities  from  the  hands  of  the 
infuriated  populace  and  carried  into  the  adjoining 
Compter  in  the  Poultry,  but  he  survived  only 
till  the  following  day.  It  was  certainly  a  re- 
markable coincidence,  as  noticed  by  Lord  Claren- 
don among  other  "predictions  and  prophecies," 
that  Doctor  Lambe  should  have  correctly  foretold 
both  the  time  of  his  own  death,  and  that  of 
Buckingham.  It  was  another  striking  coincidence, 
that,  on  the  day  on  which  Lambe  was  torn  to 
pieces  by  the  mob,  Buckingham's  picture  fell 
down  in  the  High  Commission  Chamber  at  Lam- 
beth ;  an  incident,  which,  in  a  superstitious  age, 
was  eagerly  hailed  as  a  prognostic  of  his  fall. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  Old  Jewry  stands  St. 
Olave's  Church,  another  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren's 
structures,  erected  shortly  after  the  destruction 
of  the  old  church  by  the  fire  of  London.  Stow 
records  the  names  of  several  persons  who  were 
buried  in  this  church  between  the  fourteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  but  whose  monuments  no 
longer  exist.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned 
a  monument  to  Giles  Dewes,  servant  to  Henry 
the  Seventh  and  Henry  the  Eighth,  who  died 


232  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

in  1535.  His  epitaph  recorded  that  he  was  "clerk 
of  their  libraries,  and  schoolmaster  for  the  French 
tongue  "  to  Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  and  his  sister 
Mary,  afterward  Queen  of  France.  Robert  Large, 
mercer  and  citizen,  the  master  of  Caxton,  was  also 
buried  in  this  church.  The  only  monument  of 
any  interest  which  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  church 
is  that  of  Alderman  Boydell,  the  eminent  engraver. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  Old  Jewry  stood,  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  the  magnificent 
mansion  of  Sir  Robert  Clayton. 

Dr.  James  Foster,  whose  name  has  been  im- 
mortalised by  Pope,  was  for  many  years  a  preacher 
in  the  Old  Jewry  : 

"  Let  modest  Foster,  if  he  will,  excel 
Ten  Metropolitans  in  preaching  well." 

Professor  Person  died  in  the  Old  Jewry  in  1808, 
in  the  apartments  which  he  occupied  as  librarian 
of  the  London  Institution. 

Close  to  the  Old  Jewry  is  the  church  of  St. 
Lawrence  Jewry,  dedicated  to  St.  Lawrence,  who, 
during  the  persecution  of  the  Emperor  Diocletian, 
is  said  to  have  suffered  martyrdom  by  being 
extended  on  a  gridiron  and  burnt  to  death.  The 
church,  notwithstanding  its  simplicity  of  style, 
is  allowed  to  be  one  of  the  chastest  and  most 
beautiful  of  Wren's  structures.  It  appears  to 
have  been  originally  founded  about  the  year  1293, 
shortly  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  this 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  233 

district.  The  old  church  having  been  destroyed 
by  the  fire  of  London,  the  present  building  was 
erected  in  1671.  The  facade,  at  the  east  end  in 
King  Street,  has  been  greatly  admired.  The  ap- 
pearance of  the  interior,  also,  with  its  Corinthian 
columns,  its  decorated  ceiling,  and  its  finely  orna- 
mented doorways  and  pulpit  of  polished  oak,  is 
extremely  rich  and  pleasing.  The  vestry  is  per- 
haps the  handsomest  in  London.  The  ceiling, 
containing  a  painting  by  Sir  James  Thornhill, 
representing  St.  Lawrence  being  received  into 
heaven  after  his  martyrdom,  is  richly  stuccoed, 
and  the  walls  are  completely  panelled  with  fine 
old  oak. 

In  this  church  lies  buried  Thomas  Boleyn,  Earl 
of  Wiltshire,  the  father  of  Anne  Boleyn.  He 
survived  her  death,  and  that  of  his  only  son, 
George,  Lord  Rochford,  only  two  years.  Here,  too, 
according  to  Weever,  was  interred  Sir  Geoffrey 
Boleyn,  the  great-grandfather  of  the  unfortunate 
queen,  and  the  founder  of  the  fortunes  of  the 
Boleyn  family.  He  was  a  wealthy  mercer  of 
the  city  of  London,  filled  the  lord  mayor's  chair 
in  1458,  and  about  the  same  time  married  Anne, 
daughter  of  Thomas,  Lord  Hoo  and  Hastings. 

The  most  interesting  monument  in  the  church 
is  that  to  the  memory  of  the  amiable  and  dis- 
tinguished divine,  Archbishop  Tillotson,  many  of 
whose  admirable  sermons  were  delivered  in  this 
church.  His  epitaph  is  sufficiently  brief. 


234  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

"  P.  M. 

"  Reverendissimi  et  Sanctissimi  praesulis,  Johannis  Tillot- 
son,  Archiepiscopi  Cantuariensis,  Concionatoris  olim  hie 
in  Ecclesia  perannos  30  celeberrimi ;  qui  obiit  10  Kal.  Dec. 
1694.  ^Etat.  64. 

"  Hoc  posuit  Elizabetha  conjux  illius  mcestissima." 

Tillotson  was  both  married  and  buried  in  this 
church.  Bishop  Burnet  on  the  latter  occasion 
preached  his  funeral  sermon. 

Another  eminent  prelate  buried  in  this  church 
was  Wilkins,  Bishop  of  Chester,  who  held  the 
living  of  St.  Lawrence  at  the  time  when  Tillotson 
was  Tuesday  lecturer  in  the  church.  One  other  epi- 
taph, recording  the  early  death  of  William  Bird,  who 
died  on  the  2d  of  October,  1698,  in  his  fifth  year, 
may  be  transcribed  on  account  of  its  quaintness. 

"  One  charming  bird  to  Paradise  is  flown : 
Yet  are  we  not  of  comfort  quite  bereft, 
Since  one  of  this  fair  brood  is  still  our  own, 

And  still  to  cheer  our  drooping  soul  is  left. 
This  stays  with  us,  whilst  that  its  flight  doth  take, 
That  earth  and  skies  may  one  sweet  concert  make." 

The  other  "bird"  was  his  young  sister,  Mary, 
to  whose  memory  there  is  a  monumental  effigy  of 
the  size  of  life,  with  two  Cupids  hovering  over 
her  head  and  two  weeping  at  her  feet.  Her  death 
took  place  in  her  fourteenth  year. 

Between  the  Old  Jewry  and  Ironmonger  Lane, 
where  now  stands  the  hall  of  the  Mercers'  Com- 
pany, formerly  stood  the  ancient  hospital  of  St. 


LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  235 

Thomas  of  Aeon,  founded  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Second,  by  Thomas  Fitz-Theobald  de  Helles 
and  his  wife,  Agnes,  sister  to  Thomas  a  Becket, 
whom  we  have  already  mentioned  as  having  -been 
born  near  here.  The  hospital  was  built  twenty 
years  after  his  murder,  and  dedicated  to  him  in 
conjunction  with  the  blessed  Virgin. 

The  fact  of  Gilbert  a  Becket,  the  father  of  the 
haughty  prelate,  having  resided  near  this  spot  ap- 
pears to  be  beyond  question  ;  indeed,  here  occurred 
that  romantic  incident  in  the  father's  life  which 
our  old  chroniclers  have  delighted  to  record.  While 
in  the  Holy  Land  he  had  won  the  affections  of 
Matilda,  a  fair  Saracen,  to  whom  he  subsequently 
owed  his  release  from  captivity.  Having  bidden 
her  farewell,  he  returned  to  his  native  land,  whither, 
however,  the  maiden  determined  on  following  him. 
With  love  only  for  her  beacon,  and  with  only  two 
English  watchwords,  —  "  London  and  Gilbert,"  — 
she  succeeded  in  making  her  way  from  the  Far 
East,  and  at  length  reached  "  the  Mercery,"  where 
she  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  folded  in  the  arms 
of  her  beloved  Gilbert.  Having  rewarded  her 
constancy  and  devotion  by  making  her  his  wife, 
she  in  due  time  became  the  mother  of  the  cele- 
brated prelate  and  martyr,  who  was  occasionally 
styled  Thomas  of  Aeons,  or  Acre,  from  the  pre- 
sumed birthplace  of  his  mother. 

At  the  suppression  of  the  monastic  houses  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  the  hospital  of 


236  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

St.  Thomas  of  Aeon  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  Mercers'  Company.  Their  hall,  as  well  as  the 
"fair  and  beautiful  chapel"  of  the  old  hospital, 
were  burnt  down  by  the  great  fire  of  1666.  Here 
were  formerly  to  be  seen  several  ancient  monu- 
ments, among  which  was  one  to  James  Butler,  Earl 
of  Ormond,  and  Dame  Joan,  his  wife,  who  lived  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Sixth. 

The  front  of  Mercers'  Hall  faces  Cheapside. 
Although  this  company  was  not  incorporated  till 
I393>  it  appears  that  at  a  far  earlier  period  the 
mercers  congregated  and  exposed  their  goods  for 
sale  at  this  identical  spot,  from  which  circum- 
stances it  obtained  the  name  of  "the  Mercery." 
In  Lydgate's  "  London  Lackpenny  "  we  find  : 

"  Then  to  the  Chepe  I  began  me  drawne, 

Where  much  people  I  saw  for  to  stand ; 
One  offered  me  velvet,  silke,  and  lawne, 

And  another,  he  taketh  me  by  the  hand, 
'  Here  is  Paris  thread,  and  finest  in  the  land.' " 

It  may  be  mentioned,  as  evidence  of  the  opu- 
lence and  high  position  of  the  Mercers'  Company, 
that  not  fewer  than  one  hundred  lord  mayors  have 
been  elected  from  their  society.  "  In  the  year 
1536,  on  St.  Peter's  night,"  writes  Stow,  "King 
Henry  the  Eighth  and  Queen  Jane,  his  wife,  stood 
in  this  Mercers'  Hall,  then  new  built,  and  beheld 
the  marching  watch  of  this  city,  most  bravely  set 
out,  Sir  John  Allen,  mercer,  one  of  the  king's 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  237 

Council,  being  mayor."  On  the  2d  September, 
1660,  Guy,  the  princely  founder  of  Guy's  Hospital, 
was  bound  apprentice  to  a  bookseller  "  in  the 
porch  of  Mercers'  Chapel." 

Coleman  Street,  a  continuation  of  Old  Jewry, 
contains  nothing  very  remarkable,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  its  church,  dedicated  to  St.  Stephen,  one  of 
the  most  ancient  foundations  in  London.  The  old 
building,  however,  was  burnt  down  in  1666,  shortly 
after  which  the  present  insignificant  edifice  was 
erected  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren  on  its  site.  The 
former  church  contained  a  variety  of  monuments, 
among  which  was  one  to  the  memory  of  the  inde- 
fatigable old  antiquary  and  dramatic  writer,  An- 
thony Munday,  citizen  and  draper,  who  died  in 
1633,  after  having  for  thirty  years  contrived  the 
scenic  machinery  and  arranged  the  city  shows 
and  pageants. 

Coleman  Street  is  said  to  derive  its  name  from 
one  Robert  Coleman,  who  is  supposed  to  have 
been  either  the  owner  of  the  property  or  the 
builder  of  the  street.  In  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
First  it  appears  to  have  been  much  frequented  by 
the  Puritan  and  Republican  party ;  for  which  rea- 
son probably  it  was  that  the  "  five  members  "  took 
refuge  here  on  the  memorable  occasion  of  Charles 
proceeding  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  seize 
their  persons.  Here  too  it  was,  at  a  tavern  called 
the  Star,  that  Oliver  Cromwell  and  the  heads  of 
the  Republican  party  hatched  their  plots  against 


238  LONDON   AND   ITS    CELEBRITIES. 

the  state.  Here  resided  the  Puritan  preacher,  John 
Goodwin,  who  proposed  to  Charles  the  First  to 
pray  with  him  on  the  eve  of  his  execution  ;  hence, 
immediately  after  the  Restoration,  the  Millenarian 
Venner  issued  forth  at  the  head  of  his  fanatic 
followers,  to  excite  the  insurrection  which  bears 
his  name,  and  in  this  street  he  was  hanged.  At 
No.  14,  Great  Bell  Yard,  now  Telegraph  Street, 
Bloom  field,  the  poet,  carried  on  his  trade  as  a 
shoemaker. 

To  the  west  of  Coleman  Street  is  Basinghall 
Street.  In  this  street  is  the  unimportant  church 
of  St.  Michael's  Bassishaw,  which  derives  its  name 
from  the  haugh,  or  hall,  of  the  Basing  family,  which 
anciently  stood  upon  this  spot,  and  from  whom  the 
street  is  also  named.  The  church  was  originally 
founded  about  the  year  1 140,  but,  having  been  burnt 
down  in  1666,  was  rebuilt  by  Wren  in  1679. 

Retracing  our  steps  down  the  Old  Jewry,  we 
arrive  at  the  Poultry,  so  called  from  its  having 
been  principally  tenanted  in  ancient  times  by 
poulterers.  At  the  east  end  of  the  Poultry  is  the 
ponderous-looking  Mansion  House,  built  after  the 
designs  of  George  Dance,  the  city  surveyor, 
the  first  stone  having  been  laid  on  the  2  5th  of 
October,  1739.  The  first  lord  mayor  who  in- 
habited it  was  Sir  Crisp  Gascoyne,  who  took  up 
his  abode  there  in  1753.  It  was  erected  nearly  in 
the  centre  of  what  was  called  Stocks  Market,  for- 
merly one  of  the  largest  markets  in  London,  and 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  239 

so  called  from  a  pair  of  stocks,  in  which,  as  early 
as  1281,  offenders  were  exposed  to  punishment. 
The  market  was  established  by  Henry  Wallis,  lord 
mayor,  in  1282.  In  the  middle  of  the  market  stood 
an  equestrian  statue,  said  to  have  been  erected 
in  honour  of  Charles  the  Second,  by  Sir  Robert 
Viner,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  in  1675,  the  same 
functionary  with  whom  the  Merry  Monarch  spent 
a  jovial  evening,  as  recorded  in  the  Spectator.  Ac- 
cording, however,  to  Granger  and  Walpole,  the 
statue  was,  in  fact,  that  of  John  Sobieski,  King 
of  Poland,  which  the  mayor  is  asserted  to  have 
discovered  and  purchased  at  a  foundry. 

The  cost  of  the  Mansion  House,  including  the 
price  paid  for  the  houses  which  it  was  found  neces- 
sary to  pull  down,  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  no 
less  than  ^71,000;  a  great  additional  expense 
having  been  incurred  by  the  number  of  springs 
discovered  in  laying  the  foundations,  which  ren- 
dered it  necessary  to  drive  a  vast  number  of  piles 
close  together,  upon  which  piles  the  building  was 
raised,  like  the  Stadthouse  at  Amsterdam. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  Poultry  is  the  hall  of 
the  Grocers'  Company,  standing  on  the  site  of  the 
London  residence  of  the  Barons  Fitzwalter,  from 
whom  it  was  purchased  by  the  company  in  1411. 
Originally  styled  Pepperers,  from  their  having 
dealt  principally  in  pepper,  they  were  in  1345  in- 
corporated by  Edward  the  Third  under  the  title  of 
"  the  Wardens  and  Commonalty  of  the  Mystery  of 


240  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  Grocers  of  the  City  of  London ; "  their  name 
being  apparently  derived  from  their  selling  articles 
in  the  gross. 

Among  others  portraits  in  the  hall  of  the  com- 
pany is  that  of  Sir  John  Cutler,  whom  Pope  has 
"  damned  to  everlasting  fame,"  as  one  of  the  most 
miserable  misers  on  record. 

"  Cutler  saw  tenants  break  and  houses  fall, 
For  very  want ;  he  could  not  build  a  wall. 
His  only  daughter  in  a  stranger's  power, 
For  very  want ;  he  could  not  pay  a  dower. 
A  few  gray  hairs  his  reverend  temples  crowned, 
'Twas  very  want  that  sold  them  for  two  pound. 
What  e'en  denied  a  cordial  at  his  end, 
Banished  the  doctor  and  expelled  the  friend  ? 
What  but  a  want,  that  you  perhaps  think  mad, 
Yet  numbers  feel  the  want  of  what  he  had ! 
Cutler  and  Brutus,  dying,  both  exclaim, 
Virtue  and  Wealth !  what  are  ye  but  a  name  ?  " 

—  Moral  Essays,  Epistle  3. 

Nevertheless,  so  far,  indeed,  from  Sir  John  Cut- 
ler having  been  the  wretched  skinflint  in  which 
light  Pope  has  transmitted  his  character  to  pos- 
terity, the  fact  is  that  the  manner  in  which  he 
disposed  of  his  wealth  did  him  the  highest  credit. 
He  was  a  benefactor  to  the  College  of  Physicians, 
who  erected  a  statue  to  his  memory ;  the  Mercers' 
Company,  out  of  gratitude  for  his  having  erected 
at  his  own  cost  the  great  parlour  and  court-room 
of  their  hall,  still  preserve  his  portrait  within  their 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  241 

walls  ;  and,  moreover,  the  church  of  St.  Margaret's, 
Westminster,  near  which  he  resided,  is  indebted 
to  him  for  the  north  gallery,  which  he  added  at 
his  own  expense.  And  yet  this  is  the  man  of 
whom  Pope,  whether  from  ignorance,  wantonness, 
or  design,  has  drawn  so  repulsive  a  picture.  The 
following  couplet  — 

"  His  only  daughter  in  a  stranger's  power, 
For  very  want ;  he  could  not  pay  a  dower  "  — 

displays  the  same  unaccountable  want  of  knowledge 
in  regard  to  Sir  John  Cutler  and  his  domestic  af- 
fairs. He  was  in  fact  the  father,  not  of  an  only 
daughter,  but  of  two  daughters,  one  of  whom  mar- 
ried Charles  Robartes,  second  Earl  of  Radnor,  and 
the  other  Sir  William  Portman,  baronet. 

In  Grocers'  Hall  Court,  formerly  Grocers'  Alley, 
Doctor  Hawkesworth  —  the  friend  of  Doctor  John- 
son and  the  translator  of  "  Telemachus  "  —  served 
his  apprenticeship  as  an  attorney's  clerk.  Strype 
speaks  of  Grocers'  Alley  as  an  ordinary  lane,  "  gen- 
erally inhabited  by  alehouse-keepers,  called  spung- 
ing-houses."  It  was  from  one  of  these  houses  that 
the  improvident  poet,  Samuel  Boyse,  addressed  in 
1742  those  remarkable  Latin  verses  and  pathetic 
letter  to  Cave  the  publisher,  which  Sir  John  Haw- 
kins has  preserved  in  his  "  Life  of  Doctor  John- 
son." 

At  No.  22,  in  the  Poultry,  at  the  table  of  the 
Messieurs  Dilly,  the  booksellers,  the  well-known 


242  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

meeting  took  place  between  Doctor  Johnson  and 
Wilkes.  Boswell  tells  us  that,  with  the  exception 
of  the  entertainments  given  by  Sir  Joshua  Rey 
nolds,  there  was  not  a  table  in  London  at  which 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  meeting  a  greater  number 
of  eminent  literary  men  than  at  that  of  the  Mes- 
sieurs Dilly.  At  No.  31,  in  the  Poultry,  the  late 
Thomas  Hood  was  born,  in  1798. 

Of  the  Merry  Monarch  it  is  related  that  he  was 
one  day  passing  through  the  street,  when  he  was 
informed  that  the  wife  of  William  King,  the  land- 
lord of  the  King's  Head  Tavern,  then  facing  St- 
Mildred's  Church,  in  the  Poultry,  was  in  labour, 
and  that  she  had  expressed  a  great  longing  to 
see  him.  With  his  usual  good  nature,  Charles 
expressed  his  readiness  to  gratify  her  wishes,  and 
accordingly  entered  the  house  and  saluted  her. 

At  the  west  end  of  a  court  —  formerly  called 
Scalding  Alley,  from  its  containing  a  scalding- 
house  for  the  use  of  the  poulterers  —  stands  the 
church  of  St.  Mildred,  Poultry,  dedicated  to  St. 
Mildred,  a  Saxon  princess  and  saint.  The  old  edi- 
fice, which  was  of  great  antiquity,  having  fallen  into 
a  dilapidated  state,  was  taken  down  in  1456.  The 
church  which  rose  on  its  site  was  burnt  down  in 
the  fire  of  London,  and  in  1676  the  present  build- 
ing was  erected  by  Wren.  The  interior  is  little 
more  than  a  plain,  misproportioned  apartment,  nor 
has  the  exterior  any  architectural  merit.  The  only 
eminent  person  who  appears  to  have  been  buried 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  243 

here  is  the  once  celebrated  Thomas  Tusser,  author 
of  the  "  Five  Hundred  Points  of  Good  Husbandry," 
who  died  in  London  about  the  year  1 5  80.  He  led 
a  wandering,  unsettled  life,  following  at  different 
times  the  occupations  of  farmer,  chorister,  and 
singing-master.  Fuller  describes  him  as  having 
been  "  successively  a  musician,  schoolmaster,  serv- 
ing-man, husbandman,  grazier,  poet ;  more  skilful 
in  all  than  thriving  in  any  vocation."  His  epitaph 
in  the  old  church  was  as  follows  : 

"  Here  Thomas  Tusser,  clad  in  earth,  doth  lie, 
That  sometime  made  the  '  Points  of  Kusbandrie  ; ' 
By  him  then,  learn  thou  may'st :  here  learn  we  must, 
When  all  is  done,  we  sleep,  and  turn  to  dust ; 
And  yet  through  Christ  to  Heaven  we  hope  to  go ; 
Who  reads  his  books  shall  find  his  path  was  so." 

Bishop  Hoadly  was  for  several  years  lecturer  of 
St.  Mildred's. 

Bucklersbury  —  a  street  running  to  the  south  of 
the  Poultry  —  derives  its  name,  according  to  Stow, 
from  one  Buckle,  who  had  a  manor-house,  and  kept 
his  court  or  berry  on  the  spot.  Here  stood  an 
ancient  tower,  called  the  Cornet  Tower,  built  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  the  First,  which,  having  fallen 
into  the  possession  of  Buckle,  he  was  in  the  act  of 
demolishing  it,  when  a  large  piece  of  masonry  fell 
upon  him  and  crushed  him  to  death.  Here,  too, 
Edward  the  Third  had  a  mansion,  adjoining  a  royal 
mint  for  coining  silver ;  and  here  Sir  Thomas  More 


244  LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

was  residing  at  the  time  when  his  beloved  daughter, 
Mrs.  Roper,  was  born. 

From  a  very  early  period  till  the  great  fire  of 
London,  Bucklersbury  was  inhabited  almost  en- 
tirely by  druggists,  and  vendors  of  herbs  and 
simples.  This  local  peculiarity  is  referred  to  by 
Decker,  and  also  by  Shakespeare  in  the  "Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor."  "  Come,  I  cannot  cog,  and 
say  thou  art  this  and  that,  like  a  many  of  these 
lisping  hawthorn  buds,  that  come  like  women  in 
men's  apparel,  and  smell  like  Bucklersbury  in 
simple  time."  The  circumstance  is  worthy  of 
remark,  that,  during  the  great  plague  of  1665,  the 
houses  of  the  druggists  and  herbalists  in  Bucklers- 
bury  entirely  escaped  the  visitation  which  raged 
so  fearfully  around  them. 

After  the  fire  of  London,  Bucklersbury  appears 
to  have  been  principally  distinguished  for  those 
once  fashionable  Indian  houses,  the  favourite  resort 
of  persons  of  rank  and  wealth  of  both  sexes,  where, 
on  pretence  of  purchasing  tea,  china,  japan,  and 
the  various  products  of  the  East,  they  passed  their 
idle  hours  in  discussing  the  news  and  scandal  of 
the  day.  As  may  readily  be  supposed,  they  af- 
forded convenient  facilities  for  amorous  assigna- 
tions, as  well  as  for  carrying  on  political  intrigues. 
Speaking  of  the  queen  of  William  the  Third, 
Daniel,  Earl  of  Nottingham,  writes :  "  She  dined 
at  Mrs.  Garden's,  the  famous  woman  in  the  hall 
that  sells  fine  ribands  and  head-dresses.  Thence 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  245 

she  went  to  the  Jew's  that  sells  Indian  things ;  to 
Mrs.  Ferguson's,  De  Vet's,  Mrs.  Harrison's,  and 
other  Indian  houses,  but  not  to  Mrs.  Potter's, 
though  in  her  way ;  which  caused  Mrs.  Potter  to 
say  that  she  might  as  well  have  hoped  for  that 
honour  as  others,  considering  that  the  whole  de- 
sign of  bringing  in  the  queen  and  king  was  man- 
aged at  her  house,  and  the  consultations  held 
there,  so  that  she  might  as  well  have  thrown  away 
a  little  money  in  raffling  there,  as  well  as  at  other 
houses."  "These  things,"  continues  Lord  Not- 
tingham, "however  innocent  in  themselves,  have 
passed  the  censure  of  the  town.  And,  besides 
a  private  reprimand  given,  the  king  gave  one  in 
public,  saying  to  the  queen,  he  heard  she  dined  at 

a house,  and  desired  the  next  time  she  went 

he  might  go  too.  She  said  she  had  done  nothing 
but  what  the  late  queen  had  done." 

That  the  Indian  houses  deserved  the  coarse 
name  which  King  William  bestowed  upon  them, 
there  can  be  little  question.  Colley  Gibber,  for 
instance,  makes  Lady  Townley  "taking  a  flying 
jaunt  to  an  Indian  house,"  and  Prior  writes  : 

"  To  cheapen  tea  or  buy  a  screen, 
What  else  could  so  much  virtue  mean  ?  " 

They  appear  to  have  continued  fashionable  for 
many  years.  Lord  Chesterfield  writes  to  Mrs. 
Howard,  in  August,  1728  :  "  If  I  can  be  of  any 
use  to  you  here,  especially  in  an  Indian  house  way, 


246  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

I  hope  you  will  command  me."  Perhaps  the  best 
notion  that  can  be  conveyed  of  an  Indian  house  is 
afforded  by  the  following  lines  in  Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montagu's  town  eclogue  of  "The  Toi- 
lette : " 

"  Strait  then  I'll  dress,  and  take  my  wonted  range, 
Through  Indian  shops,  to  Motteux'  or  the  'Change; 
Where  the  tall  jar  erects  its  stately  pride, 
With  antic  shapes  in  China's  azure  dyed  ; 
There  careless  lies  a  rich  brocade  unrolled  ; 
Here  shines  a  cabinet  with  burnished  gold. 
But  then,  alas !  I  must  be  forced  to  pay, 
And  bring  no  penn'worths,  not  a  fan  away." 

At  the  back  of  the  Mansion  House  is  the  famous 
and  beautiful  church  of  St.  Stephen's  Walbrook, 
the  work  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  Its  external 
appearance,  indeed,  is  sufficiently  mean  and  insig- 
nificant, but,  on  the  other  hand,  its  interior  appears 
to  be  deserving  all  the  admiration  which  it  has 
excited.  In  the  words  of  a  writer  in  the  Critical 
Review  as  quoted  by  Pennant :  "  Perhaps  Italy 
itself  can  produce  no  modern  building  that  can  vie 
with  this  in  taste  and  proportion.  There  is  not  a 
beauty  which  the  plan  would  admit  of  that  is  not 
to  be  found  here  in  the  greatest  perfection,  and 
foreigners  very  justly  call  our  taste  in  question, 
for  understanding  its  graces  no  better,  and  allow- 
ing it  no  higher  degree  of  fame." 

When  Richard,  Earl  of  Burlington,  —  celebrated 
for  his  architectural  skill  and  taste,  —  was  in  Italy, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  247 

he  happened,  among  the  many  beautiful  places  of 
worship,  to  visit  a  church  which  had  been  built 
on  the  model  of  St.  Stephen's  Walbrook.  On 
expressing  himself  very  warmly  in  its  praise,  his 
vanity  as  an  architect  must  have  been  somewhat 
piqued  when  informed  that  he  had  left  the  original 
behind  him  in  his  own  country.  On  his  return  to 
England,  his  first  step,  on  alighting  from  his  car- 
riage at  Burlington  House,  is  said  to  have  been  a 
pilgrimage  to  St.  Stephen's  Walbrook ;  a  church 
of  which,  previous  to  his  foreign  travel,  he  had 
probably  never  even  heard  the  name. 

Unquestionably  St.  Stephen's,  with  its  exquisite 
harmony  and  proportion,  its  rich  Corinthian  col- 
umns, its  fine  dome,  divided  into  decorated  com- 
partments, its  elegant  lanthorn  and  noble  roof,  is 
the  most  beautiful  of  the  modern  churches  of  Lon- 
don. In  the  words  of  Elmes,  Sir  Christopher 
Wren's  biographer,  "On  entering  through  a  ves- 
tibule of  dubious  obscurity,  and  opening  the  hand- 
some folding  wainscot  doors,  a  halo  of  dazzling 
light  flashes  at  once  upon  the  eye,  and  a  lovely 
band  of  Corinthian  columns,  of  beauteous  propor- 
tions, appear  in  magic  mazes  before  you.  The 
cupola  and  supporting  arches  expand  their  airy 
shapes  like  gossamer,  and  the  sweetly  proportioned 
and  embellished  architrave  cornice,  of  original 
lightness  and  application,  completes  the  charm. 
On  a  second  look,  the  columns  slide  into  complete 
order,  like  a  band  of  young  and  elegant  dancers  at 


248  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  close  of  a  quadrille."  The  east  window,  painted 
by  Willement,  represents  the  martyrdom  of  St. 
Stephen  ;  and  against  the  north  wall  of  the  church 
is  a  picture  by  West,  also  representing  the  death 
of  that  saint. 

The  old  church  of  St.  Stephen's  Walbrook 
appears  to  have  stood  to  the  westward  of  the  pres- 
ent edifice.  Here  there  was  a  parish  church  at 
least  as  early  as  1135,  when  Eudo,  steward  of  the 
household  to  King  Henry  the  First,  made  it  over 
to  the  monastery  of  St.  John  at  Colchester.  This 
church  would  seem  to  have  been  destroyed  about 
the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth  century,  inas- 
much as,  in  1428,  we  find  the  executors  of  Sir 
William  Stoddon,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  pur- 
chasing from  the  Grocers'  Company  a  spot  of 
ground,  in  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  his 
will,  to  the  eastward  of  Walbrook,  as  a  site  for  the 
new  church.  This  church,  which  was  completed 
in  1439,  existed  till  its  destruction  by  the  fire  of 
London,  when,  between  the  years  1672  and  1679, 
the  present  edifice  was  erected  on  its  site. 

In  the  old  church  of  St.  Stephen  was  interred 
Sir  Thomas  Pope,  the  celebrated  statesman  in  the 
reigns  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Queen  Mary,  and 
the  founder  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  Stow  has 
preserved  the  inscription  on  his  tomb  :  "  Hie  jacet 
Thomas  Pope,  primus  Thesaurarius  Augmentionum, 
et  Domina  Margaretta,  uxor  ejus,  quae  quidem  Mar- 
garetta  obiit,  16  Jan.,  1538."  In  a  vault  under  the 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  249 

present  church  lie  the  remains  of  the  well-known 
dramatic  writer  and  architect,  Sir  John  Vanbrugh, 
who  was  born  in  this  parish  in  1666. 

Walbrook  derives  its  name  from  a  fair  stream  of 
that  name,  which  in  ancient  times  entered  the  city 
through  the  old  fortified  wall  between  Bishops- 
gate  and  Moor-gate,  and,  after  many  meanderings, 
poured  itself  into  the  Thames  on  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent Dowgate  Wharf.  The  brook  was  crossed  by 
several  bridges,  and  was  sufficiently  broad  to  admit 
of  barges  being  towed  up  as  far  as  Bucklersbury, 
a  circumstance  still  preserved  in  the  name  of  Barge 
Yard.  More  than  two  centuries  have  elapsed  since 
this  rivulet  was  vaulted  over  and  built  upon,  so  that 
its  subterranean  course  is  now  but  little  known. 

In  the  wall  of  a  house  in  Pancras  Lane,  close 
by,  is  a  stone  bearing  the  following  inscription  : 
"Before  the  dreadfull  fire,  anno  1666,  here  stood 
the  parish  church  of  St.  Bennet  Sherehog."  The 
old  burial-ground  of  the  parish  is  still  to  be  seen 
in  Pancras  Lane.  Let  us  not  omit  to  mention 
that  "in,  or  near,  the  parish  of  St.  Mary  Wool- 
church,  where  the  Stocks  Market  now  is,"  was 
born,  according  to  Anthony  Wood,  the  celebrated 
dramatic  writer,  James  Shirley. 

"  Shirley,  the  morning-child,  the  Muses  bred, 
And  sent  him  born  with  bays  upon  his  head." 

Walbrook  diverges  at  its  southern  extremity  into 
Cannon  Street.  Here,  at  the  southwest  angle  of  St. 


250  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Swithin's  Lane,  stands  the  parish  church,  dedicated 
to  St.  Swithin.  The  old  church,  which  existed  on 
this  spot  at  least  as  early  as  1331,  was  burnt  down 
in  the  fire  of  London,  shortly  after  which  period 
the  present  structure  was  built  by  Sir  Christopher 
Wren.  In  this  church  Dryden  was  married,  in 
1663,  to  the  Lady  Elizabeth  Howard. 

Attached  to  the  exterior  of  St.  Swithin's  Church 
is  the  famous  "  London  Stone."  At  least  a  thou- 
sand years  are  known  to  have  elapsed  since  it  was 
first  placed  in  this  immediate  neighbourhood. 
Some  have  supposed  it  to  have  been  a  Druidical 
altar;  others,  that  it  was  raised  to  commemorate 
some  extraordinary  event ;  some,  that  public  proc- 
lamations were  delivered  from  it  to  the  citizens ; 
while  others,  from  its  vicinity  to  Watling  Street, 
the  principal  street,  or  Praetorian  way,  of  the 
Romans,  have  imagined  it  to  have  been  the  centre 
from  which  that  great  people  computed  their  dis- 
tances to  their  several  stations  throughout  Eng- 
land. These,  however,  are  the  mere  conjectures 
of  antiquaries,  nothing  certain  being  known  of  the 
history  of  this  interesting  relic,  but  that  it  has 
been  consecrated  by  the  veneration  of  ages,  and 
that  it  was  long  regarded  as  the  Palladium  of  the 
city.  When,  in  1450,  the  rebel,  Jack  Cade,  passed 
from  Southwark  into  London,  it  was  to  "  London 
Stone  "  that  he  led  his  victorious  followers.  Glanc- 
ing sternly  around  at  the  citizens  by  whom  he  was 
surrounded,  among  whom  were  the  lord  mayor, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  251 

Nicias  Wyfforde,  and  the  aldermen,  he  struck  the 
stone  with  his  sword,  exclaiming :  "  Now  is  Morti- 
mer lord  of  this  city  !  "  ' 

In  the  days  of  Stow,  London  Stone  stood  up- 
right in  the  ground  on  the  south  side  of  Cannon 
Street.  In  December,  1742,  it  was  removed  to 
the  north  side  of  the  street,  and  in  1798  it  was 
placed  in  its  present  position,  in  order  to  preserve 
it  from  risk  of  injury. 

In  Oxford  Court,  St.  Swithin's  Lane,  is  the  hall 
of  the  Salters'  Company,  built  in  1827.  On  the 
site  of  this  court  stood  the  Inn  of  the  Priors  of 
Tortington,  in  Sussex.  Overlooking  the  priors' 
garden,  now  the  garden  of  the  Salters'  Company, 
stood  "  two  fair  houses,"  which  were  severally  the 
residences  of  Sir  Richard  Empson  and  Sir  Ed- 
mund Dudley,  celebrated  as  the  instruments  of 
Henry  the  Seventh  in  carrying  out  his  oppressive 
exactions  on  his  subjects,  for  which  they  both 
subsequently  paid  the  penalty  of  death  on  Tower 
Hill.  They  were,  according  to  Stow,  allowed 
access  to  the  priors'  garden,  "wherein  they  met 
and  consulted  of  matters  at  their  pleasures."  The 
Inn  of  the  Priors  of  Tortington  subsequently  gave 
place  to  the  mansion  of  the  De  Veres,  Earls  of  Ox- 
ford, from  whom  Oxford  Court  derives  its  name. 

1  Cade.  Now  is  Mortimer  lord  of  this  city.  And  here  sitting 
upon  this  stone,  I  charge  and  command  that,  of  the  city's  cost, 
the  conduit  run  nothing  but  claret  wine  this  first  year  of  our 
reign.  And  now,  henceforward  it  shall  be  treason  for  any  that 
calls  me  other  than  Lord  Mortimer.  —  Henry  VI.  Part  II. 


CHAPTER  X. 

BISHOPSGATE    STREET,    CROSBY    HALL. 

Derivation  of  the  Word  Bishopsgate  —  Crosby  Place  —  Its 
Present  Condition  —  When  Built  —  Character  of  its  Founder 
—  Its  Tenants :  Richard  the  Third,  Read,  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian, Rest,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Bond,  Spencer,  First  Earl 
of  Northampton,  Countess  of  Pembroke,  Due  de  Sully, 
Second  Earl  of  Northampton  —  Sir  Stephen  Langham  — 
Gresham  House  —  Sir  Paul  Pindar. 

BISHOPSGATE  STREET  derives  its  name  from  one 
of  the  ancient  city  gates,  which  spanned  the  street 
where  the  thoroughfare  called  London  Wall  now 
divides  Bishopsgate  Within  from  Bishopsgate  With- 
out the  walls.  The  gate  in  question  is  said  to 
have  been  originally  built  about  the  year  680,  by 
Erkenwald,  Bishop  of  London.  Shortly  after  the 
Conquest  it  was  repaired  and  beautified  by  William, 
one  of  the  successors  of  Erkenwald  in  the  metro- 
politan see,  and  from  these  circumstances,  and 
from  its  having  been  ornamented  with  the  statues 
of  the  two  bishops,  it  derived  its  name  of  Bishops- 
gate.  It  was  finally  rebuilt  in  1479,  m  tne  reign 
of  Edward  the  Fourth. 

The  ancient  houses  which  not  long  since  ren- 
252 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  253 

dered  the  aspect  of  Bishopsgate  Street  so  inter- 
esting to  the  antiquary,  are  fast  disappearing. 
Fortunately,  however,  a  few  still  remain ;  enabling 
us  to  form  a  tolerable  notion  of  the  appearance 
of  an  aristocratic  street  in  London  in  the  days  of 
Henry  the  Seventh. 

Passing  down  Bishopsgate  Street,  a  small  gate- 
way on  the  right  leads  us  into  Crosby  Square,  the 
site  of  that  magnificent  mansion,  Crosby  Place, 
the  stately  hall  of  which  is  still  standing.  The 
escape  from  the  noise  and  bustle  of  the  streets  to 
this  quiet  spot  is  of  itself  a  relief  ;  but  how  delight- 
ful are  our  sensations  on  finding  ourselves  gazing 
on  those  time-honoured  walls,  within  which  the 
usurper  Richard  hatched  his  crooked  counsels ; 
where  Sir  Thomas  More  is  said  to  have  composed 
his  great  work,  the  "  Utopia,"  and  where  the  great 
minister,  Sully,  lodged,  when  he  arrived  in  England 
on  that  well-known  embassy,  of  which  his  own  pen 
has  bequeathed  us  so  interesting  a  description ! 

Of  the  vast  size  of  old  Crosby  Place,  the  im- 
mense extent  of  its  still  existing  vaults  affords 
sufficient  evidence.  All  that  now  remains  to  us  — 
and  rich  indeed  are  we  in  their  possession  —  are 
the  council-chamber,  the  throne-room,  and  the  old 
hall.  The  throne-room,  with  its  oak  ceiling  di- 
vided into  compartments,  and  its  graceful  window 
extending  from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor,  has  been 
deservedly  admired.  But  the  magnificent  hall  it 
is,  with  its  host  of  historical  associations,  which 


254  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

makes  us  feel  that  we  are  standing  on  classic 
ground.  There  it  is  that  we  recall  the  days  when 
it  was  the  scene  of  the  revel  and  the  dance ;  when 
the  wise,  the  witty,  and  the  princely  feasted  at  its 
festive  board ;  when  its  vaulted  roof  echoed  back 
the  merry  sounds  of  music ;  when  a  thousand  ta- 
pers flashed  on  the  tapestried  walls  ;  when  gentle 
dalliance  took  place  in  its  oriel  window  ;  and  where, 
not  improbably,  Richard  the  Third  himself  may 
have  led  off  one  of  the  stately  dances  of  the  period 
with  the  Lady  Anne.  Nearly  four  centuries  have 
passed  since  its  princely  founder  laid  his  hand  to 
its  foundation-stone ;  and  yet  it  still  remains,  with 
its  glorious  roof,  its  fine  proportions,  and  its  beau- 
tiful oriel  window,  as  perfect  as  when  the  architect 
gave  his  finishing  touch  to  it  in  the  days  of  the 
Plantagenets. 

Crosby  Place  was  built  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Fourth,  on  some  ground  rented  from  Alice 
Ashfield,  prioress  of  the  adjoining  convent  of  St. 
Helen's.  The  founder  was  the  powerful  citizen 
and  soldier,  Sir  John  Crosby,  whose  monument  is 
still  a  conspicuous  object  in  St.  Helen's  Church. 
He  was  sheriff  of  London  in  1471,  an  alderman, 
a  warden  of  the  Grocers'  Company,  and  repre- 
sented the  city  of  London  in  Parliament  from 
1461  to  1466.  He  lived  in  the  days  when  the 
wealth  and  commerce  of  London  were  monopo- 
lised by  the  few,  and  when  its  merchants  were 
indeed  princes.  In  figuring  to  our  imaginations 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  255 

a  lord  mayor  or  alderman  of  the  time  of  the  Plan- 
tagenets,  we  must  carefully  avoid  confounding  him 
with  some  pursy  and  respectable  lord  mayor  or 
alderman  of  our  own  time.  We  might  as  well 
attempt  to  identify  a  corpulent  peer  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  slumbering  on  the  easy  benches  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  with  the  stalwart  barons  who 
combated  on  the  field  of  Tewkesbury,  or  who  bore 
off  the  palm  on  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold. 
Sir  John  Crosby  was  the  prototype  of  a  class  intro- 
duced at  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  which  expired 
with  the  Tudors  and  Plantagenets  ;  a  class  of  men 
who  united  the  citizen  with  the  warrior,  and  the 
merchant  with  the  courtier,  the  diplomatist,  and 
man  of  letters.  Of  such  a  calibre  were  Sir  Will- 
iam Walworth,  who  dashed  Wat  Tyler  to  the 
earth  at  Smithfield ;  and  Sir  Thomas  Sutton,  the 
princely  founder  of  the  Charter  House,  whom  we 
find  at  one  time  accumulating  wealth  in  his  quiet 
counting-house,  at  another,  superintending  the 
firing  of  the  great  guns  at  the  siege  of  Edinburgh, 
and  lastly,  crowning  a  useful  existence  by  found- 
ing the  noble  establishment  to  which  we  have  just 
referred.  Where  are  such  illustrious  citizens  to 
be  found  in  our  own  days  ?  Such  a  man  was  Sir 
John  Crosby.  Vast  apparently  as  was  his  wealth, 
and  peaceful  as  were  his  daily  occupations,  he  was, 
nevertheless,  an  active  partisan  in  the  struggle 
between  the  Houses  of  York  and  Lancaster.  We 
find  him  welcoming  Edward  the  Fourth  on  his 


256  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

landing  at  Ravenspur,  and  receiving  knighthood 
for  his  reward ;  the  following  year  he  was  sent, 
with  Sir  John  Scott  and  others,  on  a  secret  mis- 
sion to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy;  and  not  long 
afterward  we  find  him  negotiating  at  the  court  of 
the  Duke  of  Brittany  for  the  surrender  of  the 
persons  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  and  the  Earl  of 
Richmond,  afterward  Henry  the  Seventh.  Sir 
John  Crosby  died  in  1475,  apparently  only  a  short 
time  after  the  completion  of  his  stately  mansion. 
According  to  Shakespeare,  Crosby  Place  was 
the  residence  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  after- 
ward Richard  the  Third,  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Sixth's  decease,  in  1471.  In  the  fa- 
mous wooing  scene  between  Richard  and  the  Lady 
Anne,  the  former  exclaims  : 

"  That  it  would  please  thee,  leave  these  sad  designs 
To  him  that  hath  more  cause  to  be  a  mourner, 
And  presently  repair  to  Crosby  Place ; 
Where,  after  I  have  solemnly  interr'd, 
At  Chertsey  monastery  this  noble  king, 
And  wet  his  grave  with  my  repentant  tears, 
I  will  with  all  expedient  duty  see  you : 
For  divers  unknown  reasons,  I  beseech  you, 
Grant  me  this  boon. 

Anne.     With  all  my  heart ;  and  much  it  joys  me  too, 
To  see  you  are  become  so  penitent. 
Tressel  and  Berkeley,  go  along  with  me."  * 

1 "  Richard  III.,"  Act  I.,  Scene  2.  Shakespeare  again  intro- 
duces Crosby  Place  in  the  scene  between  Gloucester  and  the 
murderers : 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  257 

Whether  Shakespeare  is  correct  in  fixing  the 
residence  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  at  Crosby 
Place,  at  this  particular  period,  admits  of  doubt ; 
but  that  he  was  residing  here  twelve  years  after- 
ward, when  Edward  the  Fourth  breathed  his  last, 
there  can  be  no  question.  Some  of  his  retinue,  it 
seems,  were  lodged  in  the  neighbouring  suburb  of 
Cripplegate.  Sir  Thomas  More  mentions,  in  his 
"  Pitiful  Life  of  King  Edward  the  Fifth,"  that  on 
the  same  night  that  Edward  the  Fourth  died  at 
Westminster,  one  Mistelbrooke  came  stealthily  to 
the  house  of  Pettier,  a  retainer  of  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  who  lived  in  Red  Cross  Street,  Crip- 
plegate, and,  "after  hasty  rapping,  being  quickly 
let  in,"  informed  him  of  the  important  tidings  of 
the  king's  death.  "By  my  troth,  then,"  quoth 
Pettier,  "will  my  master,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
be  king,  and  that  I  warrant  thee."  Even  at  this 
early  period,  it  would  seem,  were  the  ambitious 
designs  of  Richard  suspected  by  his  friends  and 
retainers.  At  all  events,  in  the  interim  between 
his  brother's  death  and  his  own  usurpation,  we 
have  evidence,  not  only  that  he  held  his  levees 
in  Crosby  Place,  but  that  they  were  crowded  with 

"  Gloucester.     Are  you  now  going  to  despatch  this  deed  ? 
ist  Murderer.     We  are,  my  lord,  and  come   to   have   the 

warrant, 
That  we  may  be  admitted  where  he  is. 

Gloucester.     Well  thought  upon  ;  I  have  it  here  about  me. 
When  you  have  done,  repair  to  Crosby  Place." 

—  Richard  ///.,  Act  I.,  Scene  3. 


258  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  noblest  and  wisest  in  the  land ;  the  young 
king  in  the  meantime  being  left  "in  a  manner 
desolate." 

In  1502,  Crosby  Place  was  purchased  by  Bar- 
tholomew Read,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  the 
same  year  was  set  apart  as  the  residence  of 
the  ambassador  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  who 
filled  it  with  a  splendid  retinue,  consisting  of  a 
bishop,  an  earl,  and  a  large  train  of  gentlemen. 
From  the  possession  of  Read,  Crosby  Place 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Sir  John  Rest,  lord 
mayor  in  1516,  by  whom  it  was  sold  to  Sir 
Thomas  More. 

Were  it  from  no  other  circumstance  than  its 
having  been  the  residence  of  that  great  man, 
Crosby  Place  would  be  sufficiently  endeared  to 
us.  Here  he  passed  that  useful  and  cheerful 
existence  which  his  pen  has  so  well  described, 
and  here  he  is  supposed  to  have  written  his 
"  Utopia  "  and  his  "  Life  of  Richard  the  Third." 
Not  improbably  the  idea  of  the  latter  work  may 
have  suggested  itself  to  him  from  his  occupying 
the  same  apartments  where,  according  to  popular 
belief,  the  crook-backed  Richard  hatched  his  dark 
projects  and  successful  crimes. 

In  1523,  Sir  Thomas  More  parted  with  Crosby 
Place  to  his  dear  friend,  Antonio  Bonvisi,  a  mer- 
chant of  Lucca.  When,  a  few  years  afterward, 
More  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  —  deprived,  by 
the  cruelty  of  his  persecutors,  of  the  means  of 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  259 

communicating  with  those  who  were  near  and  dear 
to  him,  —  it  was  to  Bonvisi  that  he  wrote  with  a 
piece  of  charcoal  that  well-known  and  interesting; 
letter  which  breathes  so  eloquently  of  Christian 
piety  and  resignation. 

From  Bonvisi,  Crosby  Place  passed,  in  1547, 
into  the  hands  of  William  Roper,  the  son-in-law, 
and  William  Rastell,  the  nephew,  of  Sir  Thomas 
More.  The  days  of  religious  persecution  fol- 
lowed ;  the  old  mansion  became  forfeited ;  and 
shortly  afterward  was  conferred  by  Edward  the 
Sixth  on  Sir  Thomas  d'Arcy,  a  Knight  of 
the  Garter,  created  Baron  d'Arcy  of  Chiche  in 
1551.  Whether  Lord  d'Arcy  ever  resided  here  is 
doubtful,  for  shortly  afterward  we  find  it  the  resi- 
dence of  a  wealthy  citizen,  William  Bond,  whose 
history  is  thus  briefly  told  on  his  monument  in  the 
neighbouring  church  of  St.  Helen's.  "  Here  lyeth 
the  body  of  William  Bond,  Alderman  and  some 
time  Sheriff  of  London ;  a  merchant  adventurer,, 
and  most  famous  in  his  age  for  his  great  adven- 
tures, both  by  sea  and  land.  Obiit  30  of  May, 
1576." 

The  next  possessor  of  Crosby  Place  (1590)  was 
Sir  John  Spencer,  whose  immense  wealth  rendered  • 
him  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  persons  of  his 
age,  and  obtained  for  him  the  title  of  the  "Rich 
Spencer."  Here  he  kept  his  mayoralty  in  1594. 
At  his  death,  in  1609,  Crosby  Place,  together  with 
the  mass  of  his  vast  fortune,  came  into  the  posses- 


260  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

sion  of  William  Compton,  the  first  Earl  of  North- 
ampton, who  had  married  Elizabeth,  the  only 
daughter  of  the  "  Rich  Spencer." 

The  circumstance  of  finding  himself  suddenly 
the  possessor  of  untold  wealth  had  such  an  effect 
upon  Lord  Northampton,  that,  according  to  Win- 
wood,  it  deprived  him  temporarily  of  his  senses. 
On  the  mind  of  his  lady,  however,  —  at  least,  if  we 
may  judge  by  the  following  very  curious  letter 
addressed  by  her  to  her  lord,  —  it  produced  no 
other  effect  than  a  desire  to  spend  freely,  and  to 
the  best  advantage,  the  wealth  which  Providence 
and  her  father's  long  life  of  industry  had  secured 
to  her. 

"  MY  SWEET  LIFE  :  —  Now  I  have  declared  to 
you  my  mind  for  the  selling  of  your  estate,  I  sup- 
posed that  that  were  best  for  me  to  bethink  or 
consider  with  myself  what  allowance  were  meetest 
for  me.  For  considering  what  care  I  have  ever 
had  of  your  estate,  and  how  respectfully  I  dealt 
with  those,  which  both  by  the  laws  of  God,  of 
nature,  and  civil  polity,  wit,  religion,  government, 
and  honesty,  you,  my  dear,  are  bound  to,  I 
pray  and  beseech  you  to  grant  to  me,  your 
most  kind  and  loving  wife,  the  sum  of  £1,600 
per  annum,  quarterly  to  be  paid. 

"  Also  I  would,  besides  that  allowance  for  my 
apparel,  have  £600  added  yearly  (quarterly  to  be 
paid),  for  the  performance  of  charitable  works, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  261 

and  these  things  I  would  not,  neither  will  be 
accountable  for. 

"Also  I  will  have  three  horses  for  my  own 
saddle,  that  none  shall  dare  to  lend  or  borrow ; 
none  lend  but  I,  none  borrow  but  you. 

"  Also  I  would  have  two  gentlewomen,  lest  one 
should  be  sick  or  have  some  other  lett.  Also 
believe  that  it  is  an  undecent  thing  for  a  gentle- 
woman to  stand  mumping  alone,  when  God  hath 
blessed  their  lord  and  lady  with  a  great  estate. 

"Also  when  I  ride  a  hunting,  or  a  hawking,  or 
travel  from  one  house  to  another,  I  will  have  them 
attending.  So  for  either  of  those  said  women,  I 
must  and  will  have  for  either  of  them  a  horse. 

"  Also  I  will  have  six  or  eight  gentlemen ;  and 
I  will  have  my  two  coaches,  one  lined  with  velvet, 
to  myself,  with  four  very  fair  horses  ;  and  a  coach 
for  my  women,  lined  with  sweet  cloth,  one  laced 
with  gold,  the  other  with  scarlet,  and  lined  with 
watched  lace  and  silver,  with  four  good  horses. 

"Also  I  will  have  two  coachmen,  one  for  my 
own  coach,  the  other  for  my  women. 

"Also,  at  any  time  when  I  travel,  I  will  be 
allowed,  not  only  caroches  and  spare  horses  for 
me  and  my  women,  but  I  will  have  such  carriages 
as  shall  be  fitting  for  all,  orderly,  not  posturing  my 
things  with  my  women's,  nor  theirs  with  chamber- 
maids, nor  theirs  with  wash-maids. 

"Also,  for  laundresses,  when  I  travel,  I  will 
have  them  sent  away  before  with  the  carriages  to 


262  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

see  all  safe ;  and  the  chambermaids  I  will  have 
go  before  the  grooms,  that  the  chambers  may  be 
ready,  sweet,  and  clean. 

"Also,  for  that  it  is  undecent  to  crowd  up  my- 
self with  my  gentleman-usher  in  my  coach,  I  will 
have  him  to  have  a  convenient  horse,  to  attend  me 
either  in  city  or  country.  And  I  must  have  two 
footmen.  And  my  desire  is,  that  you  defray  all 
the  charges  for  me. 

"  And  for  myself,  besides  my  yearly  allowance, 
I  would  have  twenty  gowns  of  apparel,  six  of  them 
excellent  good  ones,  eight  of  them  for  the  country, 
and  six  other  of  them  very  excellent  good  ones. 

"  Also  I  would  have  to  put  in  my  purse,  .£2,000 
and  £200 ;  and  so  you  to  pay  my  debts. 

"Also  I  would  have  £6,000  to  buy  me  jewels, 
and  .£4,000  to  buy  me  a  pearl  chain. 

"  Now,  seeing  I  have  been  and  am  so  reasonable 
unto  you,  I  pray  you  to  find  my  children  apparel 
and  their  schooling,  and  all  my  servants,  men  and 
women,  their  wages. 

"  And  I  will  have  all  my  houses  furnished,  and 
all  my  lodging-chambers  to  be  suited  with  all  such 
furniture  as  is  fit ;  as  beds,  stools,  chairs,  suitable 
cushions,  carpets,  silver  warming-pans,  cupboards 
of  plate,  fair  hangings,  and  such  like.  So  for  my 
drawing-chamber  in  all  houses,  I  will  have  them 
delicately  furnished,  both  with  hangings,  couch, 
canopy,  glass,  carpet,  chairs,  cushions,  and  all 
things  thereunto  belonging. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  263 

"  Also  my  desire  is,  that  you  would  pay  your 
debts,  build  Ashby  House,  and  purchase  lands  ; 
and  lend  no  money,  as  you  love  God,  to  the  lord 
chamberlain,1  which  would  have  all,  perhaps  your 
life,  from  you.  Remember  his  son,  my  Lord  Wai- 
den,2  what  entertainment  he  gave  me  when  you 
were  at  the  Tilt-yard.  If  you  were  dead,  he  said 
he  would  be  a  husband,  a  father,  a  brother  ;  and 
said  he  would  marry  me.  I  protest  I  grieve  to 
see  the  poor  man  have  so  little  wit  and  honesty 
to  use  his  friend  so  vilely.  Also  he  fed  me  with 
untruths  concerning  the  Charter  House ;  but  that 
to  the  least  he  wished  me  much  harm- ;  you  know 
him,  God  keep  you  and  me  from  him,  and  any  such 
as  he  is. 

"  So  now  that  I  have  declared  to  you  what  I 
would  have,  and  what  that  is  that  I  would  not  have, 
I  pray,  when  you  be  an  earl,  to  allow  me  ;£i,ooo 
more  than  now  desired,  and  double  attendance. 
"  Your  loving  wife, 

"  ELIZA  COMPTON." 

The  next  tenant  of  Crosby  Place  was  the  cele- 
brated Mary,  Countess  of  Pembroke,  wife  of  Henry, 
second  Earl  of  Pembroke,  and  mother  of  Earl  Wil- 


1  Thomas  Howard,  first  Earl  of  Suffolk,  the  corrupt  and  rapa- 
cious minister  of  James  the  First.  He  died  in  Suffolk  House, 
now  Northumberland  House,  in  the  Strand,  28th  of  May,  1626. 

8  Theophilus,  who  succeeded  his  father  as  second  Earl  of  Suf 
folk,  died  3d  of  June,  1640. 


264  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

liam  and  Earl  Philip.  She  was  the  beloved  sister 
of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  accordingly  the  proba- 
bility that  he  was  frequently  her  guest  at  Crosby 
Place  lends  an  additional  interest  to  the  spot. 
The  tastes  and  habits  of  the  brother  and  sister 
were  congenial.  There  existed  in  each  the  same 
high  sense  of  honour,  the  same  refinement  of  mind, 
the  same  amiable  interest  in  the  sufferings  and 
wants  of  others.  Sir  Philip  dedicated  his  "Ar- 
cadia "  to  his  sister,  the  being  who  best  loved  the 
author,  and  who  was  the  most  competent  to  appre- 
ciate his  genius.  By  Doctor  Donne  it  was  said  of 
her  that  "she  could  converse  well  on  all  subjects, 
from  predestination  to  sleave-silk."  Ben  Jonson 
wrote  his  famous  epitaph  on  her  death,  and  Spen- 
ser eulogises  her  as  — 

"  The  gentlest  shepherdess  that  lived  that  day ; 
And  most  resembling,  both  in  shape  and  spirit, 
Her  brother  dear." 

Lady  Pembroke  lived  to  a  very  advanced  age, 
her  later  years  having  been  unfortunately  embit- 
tered by  the  cowardice  and  misconduct  of  her 
second  son,  Philip,  the  "merhorable  simpleton" 
of  Horace  Walpole. 

When,  toward  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  the  Due  de  Biron  arrived  in  London 
with  his  magnificent  ambassadorial  train,  consisting 
of  nearly  four  hundred  noblemen  and  gentlemen, 
it  was  at  Crosby  Place  that  he  was  lodged. 


Sully. 

Photo-etching  from  an  old  painting. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  265 

Another  French  ambassador  who  was  an  occu- 
pant of  Crosby  Place  was  the  celebrated  Due  de 
Sully,  who  lodged  here  in  great  splendour  on  the 
occasion  of  his  embassy  to  England  in  the  reign 
of  James  the  First.  On  the  night  after  his  arrival 
an  unfortunate  accident  occurred,  which  very 
nearly  led  to  Crosby  Place  becoming  the  scene  of 
outrage  and  bloodshed.  "  I  was  accommodated 
with  apartments,"  says  Sully  in  his  memoirs,  "in 
a  very  handsome  house,  situated  in  a  great  square, 
near  which  all  my  retinue  were  also  provided  with 
the  necessary  lodgings.  Some  of  them  went  to 
entertain  themselves  with  women  of  the  town.  At 
the  same  place  they  met  with  some  English,  with 
whom  they  quarrelled,  fought,  and  one  of  the  Eng- 
lish was  killed.  The  populace,  who  were  before 
prejudiced  against  us,  being  excited  by  the  family 
of  the  deceased,  who  was  a  substantial  citizen,  as- 
sembled, and  began  loudly  to  threaten  revenge 
upon  all  the  French,  even  in  their  lodgings.  The 
affair  soon  began  to  appear  of  great  consequence  ; 
for  the  number  of  the  people  assembled  upon  the 
occasion  was  presently  increased  to  upward  of 
three  thousand,  which  obliged  the  French  to  fly 
for  an  asylum  into  the  house  of  the  ambassador. 
I  did  not  at  first  take  notice  of  it ;  the  evening 
advanced,  and  I  was  playing  at  primero  with  the 
Marquis  d'Oraison,  Saint  Luc,  and  Blerancourt. 
But  observing  them  come  in  at  different  times,  by 
three  and  four  together,  and  with  great  emotion, 


266  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

I  at  last  imagined  that  something  extraordinary 
had  happened,  and  having  questioned  Terrail  and 
Gadencourt,  they  informed  me  of  the  particulars. 
The  honour  of  my  nation,  my  own  in  particular, 
and  the  interest  of  my  negotiation,  were  the  first 
objects  that  presented  themselves  to  my  mind.  I 
was  also  most  sensibly  grieved  that  my  entrance 
into  London  should  be  marked  at  the  beginning 
by  so  fatal  an  accident ;  and  at  that  moment  I  am 
persuaded  my  countenance  plainly  expressed  the 
sentiments  with  which  I  was  agitated.  Guided  by 
my  first  impulse,  I  arose,  took  a  flambeau,  and 
ordering  all  that  were  in  the  house  (which  was 
about  a  hundred)  to  range  themselves  round  the 
walls,  hoped  by  this  means  to  discover  the  mur- 
derer, which  I  did  without  any  difficulty,  by  his 
agitation  and  fear.  He  was  for  denying  it  at  first, 
but  I  soon  obliged  him  to  confess  the  truth." 

The  culprit,  it  seems,  was  a  young  man  of  good 
family,  the  only  son  of  the  Sieur  de  Combant,  and 
a  relative  of  M.  de  Beaumont,  the  resident  French 
ambassador  in  London.  The  latter  happening  to 
enter  at  the  moment,  earnestly  advocated  the 
cause  of  his  kinsman,  and  entreated  that  his  life 
might  be  spared.  Sully,  however,  obdurately  in- 
sisted on  the  necessity  of  waiving  all  private  feel- 
ings in.  a  matter  of  such  vital  importance  ;  adding, 
that  on  no  account  whatever  would  he  allow  the 
interests  of  the  king,  his  master,  to  suffer  by  the 
imprudence  of  a  reckless  stripling.  "  I  told  Beau- 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  267 

mont,"  he  says,  "  in  plain  words  that  Combant 
should  be  beheaded  in  a  few  minutes.  How,  sir, 
cried  Beaumont,  behead  a  kinsman  of  mine,  pos- 
sessed of  200,000  crowns,  an  only  son  ?  —  it  is  but 
an  ill  recompense  for  the  trouble  he  has  given 
himself,  and  the  expense  he  has  been  at  to  accom- 
pany you.  I  again  replied  in  as  positive  a  tone 
that  I  had  no  occasion  for  such  company,  and,  to 
be  short,  I  ordered  Beaumont  to  quit  my  apart- 
ment, for  I  thought  it  would  be  improper  to  have 
him  present  in  my  council,  which  I  intended  to 
hold  immediately,  in  order  to  pronounce  sentence 
of  death  upon  Combant."  It  would  seem  that 
Sully,  in  his  heart,  had  really  no  intention  what- 
ever of  putting  the  young  man  to  death.  The 
crafty  diplomatist,  indeed,  had  conceived  an  idea, 
which,  while  it  enabled  him  to  save  the  offender's 
life,  would  at  the  same  time  have  the  effect,  as  he 
well  knew,  of  rendering  himself  not  a  little  popular 
with  the  citizens  of  London.  Concealing  his  real 
intentions  from  those  who  surrounded  him,  and 
pretending  extreme  indignation  at  the  conduct  of 
his  retainer,  he  wrote  to  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Lon- 
don, desiring  that  on  the  following  day  he  would 
send  the  officers  of  justice  to  Crosby  Place,  in 
order  to  conduct  the  criminal  to  execution.  Dis- 
armed by  this  apparent  sincerity  on  the  part  of  the 
Due  de  Sully,  —  and,  as  the  latter  seems  to  hint, 
bribed  by  the  friends  of  the  criminal,  —  the  lord 
mayor  readily  listened  to  the  solicitations  of  M. 


268  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

de  Beaumont  on  behalf  of  his  kinsman,  and  in  due 
time  Combant  was  set  at  liberty.  "  This  favour," 
says  Sully,  "  no  one  could  impute  to  me ;  on  the 
contrary,  I  perceived  that  both  the  French  and 
English  seemed  to  think  that  if  the  affair  had 
been  determined  by  me,  it  would  not  have  ended 
so  well  for  Combant ;  and  the  consequence  to  me 
was,  with  respect  to  the  English  and  French,  that 
the  former  began  to  love  me,  and  the  latter  to  fear 
me  more." 

The  last  inhabitant  of  Crosby  Place,  to  whose 
name  any  particular  interest  attaches,  was  the  gal- 
lant cavalier,  Spencer,  second  Earl  of  Northamp- 
ton, who,  in  1612,  accompanied  Charles  the  First, 
when  Prince  of  Wales,  as  his  master  of  the  robes, 
in  his  romantic  journey  to  Madrid  to  woo  the 
Infanta  of  Spain.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil 
wars  he  attached  himself  to  the  cause  of  his  royal 
master.  He  was  present,  at  the  head  of  two  thou- 
sand retainers,  at  the  famous  raising  of  the  stand- 
ard at  Nottingham  ;  distinguished  himself  at  the 
battle  of  Edgehill ;  and,  in  several  skirmishes,  ob- 
tained a  victory  over  the  rebels.  Like  his  friend, 
the  great  Lord  Falkland,  he  was  destined  to  expi- 
ate his  loyalty  on  the  battle-field.  In  the  famous 
fight  on  Hopton  Heath,  notwithstanding  the  vast 
numerical  superiority  of  the  rebel  forces,  he  deter- 
mined on  giving  them  battle.  Dashing  forward 
at  the  head  of  his  gallant  troopers,  he  completely 
cleared  the  field  of  the  enemy's  cavalry ;  captured 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  269 

their  cannon  and  ammunition,  and  left  between 
four  and  five  hundred  on  the  ground  either  dead 
or  disabled.  Suddenly,  however,  he  found  himself 
in  the  midst  of  the  rebel  infantry,  and  his  helmet 
having  been  struck  off  by  the  butt-end  of  a  mus- 
ket, he  was  at  once  recognised.  Quarter  was 
offered  to  him,  but  it  was  indignantly  rejected. 
"  Think  ye,"  he  said,  "  that  I  will  take  quarter  from 
such  base  rebels  and  rogues  as  ye  are  ? "  at  the 
same  time  preparing  to  sell  his  life  as  dearly  as 
possible.  In  a  moment  he  was  assailed  on  all 
sides.  A  blow  on  his  face,  and  another  from  a 
halbert  on  the  back  of  his  head,  sent  him  stag. 
gering  from  his  horse,  and  the  hero  of  Hopton 
Heath  fell  to  rise  no  more. 

The  mingling  of  the  ancient  blood  of  the  Comp- 
tons  with  that  of  the  plebeian  merchant,  the  "  Rich 
Spencer,"  appears  in  no  degree  to  have  contami- 
nated the  chivalry  of  their  race.  Of  the  great- 
grandchildren of  the  old  usurer,  whose  infancies 
were  probably  passed  at  Crosby  Place,  there  was 
not  one  who  was  not  in  heart  and  by  profession 
a  soldier.  James,  who  succeeded  as  third  Earl  of 
Northampton,  and  his  brother,  Sir  Charles  Comp- 
ton,  fought  side  by  side  with  their  gallant  father 
at  Edgehill  and  Hopton  Heath,  and  subsequently 
avenged  his  death  on  many  a  bloody  field.  Sir 
William,  whatever  may  have  been  his  faults,  was 
the  brave  defender  of  Banbury.  Sir  Spencer  fought 
in  most  of  the  battles  of  the  time ;  and  Sir  Francis, 


270  LONDON  AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

after  a  long  professional  career,  died  in  1716,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-seven,  the  oldest  field-officer  in  the 
military  service  of  Great  Britain.  The  youngest 
brother  was  Henry,  who,  though  Bishop  of  London, 
appears  to  have  had  at  least  as  much  of  the  sol- 
dier in  his  composition  as  the  churchman.  In  his 
youth  he  had  held  a  commission  in  the  Guards, 
nor  was  it  till  he  had  attained  the  age  of  thirty 
that  he  entered  into  Holy  Orders.  When  James 
the  Second,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power,  was 
plotting  against  the  religion  and  the  liberties  of 
his  subjects,  he  happened  one  day  to  be  conversing 
with  the  bishop  on  the  state  of  public  affairs,  when 
the  latter  boldly  and  conscientiously  expressed  him- 
self opposed  to  the  king's  measures.  "  My  lord," 
said  James,  "you  are  talking  more  like  a  colonel 
than  a  bishop."  "  Your  Majesty  does  me  honour," 
was  the  calm  reply,  "  in  reminding  me  that  I 
formerly  drew  my  sword  in  defence  of  the  Con- 
stitution ;  I  shall  certainly  do  so  again  if  I  live  ta 
see  the  necessity."  The  necessity  indeed  was  near 
at  hand.  When  the  misgovernment  and  miscon- 
duct of  James  threw  the  country  into  a  state  of 
anarchy,  it  was  Bishop  Compton  whom  the  Prin- 
cess Anne  selected  to  be  her  personal  protector. 
When  —  without  attendants,  and  without  a  change 
of  linen  —  she  stole,  in  the  dead  of  night,  down 
the  back  staircase  at  the  Cockpit  at  Whitehall, 
it  was  the  gallant  bishop  who  was  in  readiness 
with  a  hackney-coach  to  carry  her  in  safety  to- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  271 

her  friends.  He  it  was  —  when  the  princess  made 
her  public  entry  into  Oxford  —  who  rode  before 
her  at  the  head  of  a  gallant  troop  of  gentle- 
men, clad  "  in  a  purple  cloak,  martial  habit,  pistols 
before  him,  and  his  sword  drawn ; "  his  cornet 
carrying  a  standard  before  him,  on  which  were 
inscribed,  in  golden  letters,  the  words  "  Nolumus 
leges  Anglics  mutari" 

The  remaining  annals  of  Crosby  Place  may  be  re- 
lated in  a  few  words.  The  last  tenant  was  Sir 
Stephen  Langham,  who  was  its  occupant  at  the 
time  of  the  Restoration  of  Charles  the  Second,  and 
in  whose  lifetime  the  greater  part  of  the  fine  old 
mansion  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Fortunately  the 
magnificent  hall  escaped,  and  from  1672  till  the 
middle  of  the  last  century  was  used  as  a  Presbyterian 
meeting-house.  The  next  purpose  to  which  it  was 
converted  was  a  packer's  warehouse,  in  which  con- 
dition it  remained  for  many  years,  when  public 
attention  was  called  to  its  dilapidated  state,  and 
sufficient  funds  were  raised  by  subscription  to 
restore  it,  as  we  now  view  it,  to  its  pristine  state 
of  beauty  and  magnificence.  The  work  of  restora- 
tion commenced  on  the  2/th  of  June,  1836. 

Besides  Crosby  Place,  Bishopsgate  Street  in  the 
olden  time  could  boast  more  than  one  magnificent 
mansion.  On  the  west  side  stood  Gresham  House, 
the  princely  palace  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  the 
founder  of  the  Royal  Exchange  and  of  Gresham 
College.  His  vast  wealth,  his  munificent  charities, 


272  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  pleasure  which  Queen  Elizabeth  took  in  his 
society,  and  his  having  been  constantly  employed 
in  transacting  the  commercial  affairs  of  the  court, 
obtained  for  him  the  name  of  the  "  Royal  Mer- 
chant." Not  only  was  he  the  greatest  merchant 
of  his  age ;  not  only  were  his  energies  employed 
in  extending  our  trade  over  the  world,  and  extri- 
cating the  Crown  from  its  pecuniary  trammels,  but 
he  has  also  the  merit  of  having  introduced  into 
the  kingdom  the  manufacture  of  small  wares,  such 
as  pins,  knives,  hats,  ribands,  and  other  articles. 
Queen  Elizabeth  was  frequently  his  guest,  not 
only  at  his  country-seat,  Osterly,  near  Brentford, 
but  also  at  his  palace  in  Bishopsgate  Street ;  since 
more  than  once  we  read,  in  the  parish  annals  of 
the  period,  of  the  "ringing  of  the  bells"  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Virgin  Queen  having  been  enter- 
tained under  his  hospitable  roof. 

By  his  will,  dated  in  1 5  79,  the  year  of  his  death, 
Sir  Thomas  Gresham  ordained  that  his  house  in 
Bishopsgate  Street  should  be  converted  into  a 
college ;  to  comprise  habitations  and  lecture-rooms 
for  seven  professors,  who  were  required  to  lecture 
on  divinity,  astronomy,  music,  geometry,  civil  law, 
physic,  and  rhetoric.  Here,  in  1658,  was  founded 
the  Royal  Society,  of  which  the  great  philosopher 
Robert  Boyle,  and  the  great  architect  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren,  were  among  the  original  members. 
When  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  lost  his  beautiful  wife, 
Venetia  Stanley,  it  was  in  Gresham  College  that 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  273 

he  excluded  himself  from  the  world,  amusing 
himself  with  the  study  of  chemistry,  and  with 
the  conversation  of  the  professors.  Here  this  ex- 
traordinary man  was  daily  to  be  seen  pacing  the 
secluded  court  of  the  college ;  his  dress  consisting 
of  a  long  mourning  cloak  and  a  high-crowned  hat ; 
and  his  beard,  which  he  had  allowed  to  grow  in 
testimony  of  his  grief,  flowing  at  full  length  on 
his  breast.  Let  us  not  omit  to  mention,  that  at 
his  apartments  in  Gresham  College  the  celebrated 
mathematician  and  philosopher,  Robert  Hooke, 
breathed  his  last  in  March,  1702-03. 

Another  stately  mansion  which  stood  in  Bishops- 
gate  Street  was  that  of  the  eminent  merchant,  Sir 
Paul  Pindar,  who,  like  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  was 
distinguished  alike  by  his  vast  wealth,  his  splendid 
charities,  and  literary  taste.  He  is  said  at  one 
period  of  his  life  to  have  been  worth  no  less  a  sum 
than  .£236,000,  exclusive  of  bad  debts.  As  an 
instance  of  his  munificence,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  he  gave  £19,000  in  one  gift  toward  the  repair 
of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  In  the  reign  of  James  the 
First  he  was  appointed  ambassador  to  the  Grand 
Seignior,  on  which  occasion  he  successfully  exerted 
his  talents  and  sound  sense  in  extending  British 
commerce  in  Turkey.  At  his  return  he  brought 
with  him  a  diamond  valued  at  £30,000.  The  arri- 
val of  this  costly  bauble  in  England  created  an 
extraordinary  sensation ;  and  King  James  the 
First,  eager  to  place  it  in  the  regal  coronet, 


274  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

offered  to  purchase  it  on  credit.  This  overture, 
from  prudential  motives,  was  rejected  by  its  owner, 
though  he  allowed  his  sovereign  the  loan  of  it,  and 
accordingly  it  was  worn  by  him  on  more  than 
one  occasion  of  state  and  ceremony.  It  was  after- 
ward purchased  by  Charles  the  First,  and  likely 
enough  shared  the  fate  of  the  other  crown  jewels 
which  Henrietta  Maria  carried  with  her  to  Hol- 
land in  1642,  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  arms 
and  ammunition  to  enable  her  husband  to  carry 
on  the  war  with  his  subjects.  Probably  no  indi- 
vidual ever  lent  such  vast  sums  to  his  sovereign  as 
Sir  Paul  Pindar.  Charles  the  First  was  his  debtor 
to  a  vast  amount,  and  involved  Sir  Paul  in  his  own 
ruin.  So  great  indeed  is  said  to  have  been  the 
revolution  in  his  fortunes,  that  for  a  short  time  he 
was  a  prisoner  for  debt.  When  he  died,  so  bewil- 
dered was  his  executor,  William  Toomes,  at  the 
confused  state  in  which  he  found  his  friend's 
affairs,  added  to  the  multiplicity  of  his  engage- 
ments and  responsibilities,  that  it  is  said  to  have 
been  the  cause  of  his  putting  an  end  to  his  exist- 
ence. 

A  part  of  the  princely  residence  of  Sir  Paul 
Pindar  (No.  169),  though  strangely  metamorphosed 
by  time  and  paint,  may  still  be  seen  nearly  opposite 
to  Widegate  Street.  In  the  immediate  neighbour- 
hood is  the  church  of  St.  Botolph's,  Bishopsgate,  in 
which  may  be  seen  the  monument  of  the  princely 
merchant,  bearing  the  following  inscription  : 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  275 

««  Sir  Paul  Pindar,  Kt, 
His  Majesty's  Ambassador  to  the  Turkish  Emperor, 

Anno  Domi.  1611,  and  9  years  resident. 
Faithful  in  negotiation,  Foreign  and  Domestick, 
Eminent  for  piety,  charity,  loyalty,  and  prudence. 
An  inhabitant  26  years,  and  bountiful  Benefactor 

to  this  Parish. 

He  died  the  22d  of  August,  1650, 
Aged  84  years." 


CHAPTER    XI. 

CHURCH    OF    ST.    HELEN'S    THE    GREAT. 

Antiquity  of  St.  Helen's  Church  —  Priory  of  Benedictine  Nuns 
Founded  There  —  Exterior  and  Interior  of  the  Church  —  Its 
Striking  Monuments :  Sir  Julius  Caesar's,  Martin  Bond's,  Sir 
John  Crosby's,  Sir  William  Pickering's,  Sir  Thomas  Gresh- 
am's,  Francis  Bancroft's  —  Houndsditch  —  Hand  Alley  — 
Devonshire  Court  —  St.  Botolph's  Church  —  Persian's  Tomb 
—  Curtain  Theatre  —  Shoreditch  —  Hoxton  —  Spitalfields  — 
Bethnal  Green  —  Old  Artillery  Ground. 

NORTH  of  Crosby  Square  is  an  insignificant 
thoroughfare,  leading  us  at  once  from  the  noise 
and  turmoil  of  Bishopsgate  Street  into  an  area  of 
considerable  size,  in  which  stands  the  ancient  and 
interesting  church  of  St.  Helen's  the  Great.  Were 
it  from  no  other  circumstance  than  that  it  con- 
tains the  mouldering  remains  and  costly  monu- 
ments of  more  than  one  princely  possessor  of 
Crosby  Place,  St.  Helen's  would  be  well  worthy 
of  a  visit.  But  it  has  other  and  far  more  interest- 
ing associations. 

It  was  probably  not  long  after  the  time  when 
the  conversion  of  Constantine  the  Great  to  Chris- 
tianity had  the  effect  of  bursting  the  fetters  of 
the  primitive  Christians,  and  of  drawing  them 

276 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  277 

from  their  caves  and  hiding-places  to  adore  their 
Redeemer  in  the  open  face  of  day,  that  a  place  of 
religious  worship  was  raised  on  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent St.  Helen's  Church.  Everything  around  us,  in- 
deed, breathes  of  antiquity.  Long  before  the  days 
of  Constantine  the  ground  on  which  we  stand  was 
the  site  of  the  princely  palace,  either  of  some 
Roman  emperor,  or  of  one  of  his  lordly  delegates. 
In  1712,  a  tesselated  pavement,  composed  of  red, 
white,  and  gray  tessera,  was  discovered  on  the 
north  side  of  Little  St.  Helen's  gateway,  and  as 
late  as  1836  a  similar  pavement  was  found  at  the 
northwest  angle  of  Crosby  Square. 

From  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  palaces  and 
temples  which  the  Romans  erected  in  England, 
not  unfrequently  arose  the  altars  and  churches  of 
the  early  Christians.  Among  these,  not  improb- 
ably, was  St.  Helen's  Church  ;  although  we  have 
no  certain  information  of  its  having  been  a  place 
of  Christian  worship  till  1010,  in  which  year  Al- 
weyne,  Bishop  of  Helmeham,  removed  hither  from 
St.  Edmondsbury  the  remains  of  King  Edmund 
the  Martyr,  in  order  to  prevent  their  being  dese- 
crated by  the  Danes.  The  very  name  of  the 
saint  to  whom  the  church  is  dedicated  carries  us 
into  far  antiquity.  The  patron  saint  was  Helena, 
the  mother  of  Constantine  the  Great,  who  is  said 
to  have  been  born  at  Colchester  in  Essex.  Her 
piety  has  immortalised  her  name.  The  inscrip- 
tions, which  describe  her  as  Piissima,  and  Vener- 


278  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

abilis  Augusta,  show  in  what  veneration  she  was 
held,  not  only  by  her  contemporaries,  but  by  suc- 
ceeding ages.  When  a  pilgrimage  over  the  sandy 
and  hostile  plains  of  Palestine  was  an  undertaking 
from  which  even  the  boldest  often  shrank,  the 
mother  of  the  emperor,  despising  alike  all  danger 
and  privation,  journeyed  to  the  Holy  City.  Per- 
suaded by  the  enthusiasts  and  antiquaries  of  the 
fourth  century  that  she  had  discovered,  not  only 
the  exact  site  of  the  crucifixion,  but  the  true 
cross,  she  built  a  church  over  the  presumed  site 
of  the  Redeemer's  interment,  and  by  this,  and 
other  acts  of  piety,  obtained  for  herself  not  only 
an  extraordinary  reputation  for  sanctity  during  her 
lifetime,  but  canonisation  after  death. 

Putting  tradition,  however,  out  of  the  question, 
St.  Helen's  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting churches  in  London.  Here,  in  1210,  a 
priory  of  Benedictine,  or  Black  Nuns,  was  founded 
by  William  Fitz-William,  a  wealthy  and  pious 
goldsmith  of  London.  The  establishment  appears 
to  have  been  of  considerable  size,  having  its  hall, 
hospital,  dormitories,  cloisters,  and  offices.  The 
nuns  rest  calmly  beneath  the  green  and  level 
sward  in  front  of  St.  Helen's  Church,  but,  with 
the  exception  of  the  pile  in  which  they  offered  up 
their  devotions,  no  trace  of  the  ancient  nunnery 
remains.  Their  refectory  was  for  many  years  used 
as  the  hall  of  the  Leathersellers'  Company ;  nor 
was  it  till  1799  that  it  was  pulled  down,  in  order  to 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  279 

make  room  for  the  houses  known  as  St.  Helen's 
Place.  Together  with  the  hall  perished  the  ancient 
crypt  beneath  it,  which  was  of  great  antiquity,  and 
possessed  no  inconsiderable  architectural  merit. 

The  exterior  of  St.  Helen's  presents  the  singu- 
lar aspect  of  a  double  church,  or  rather  of  two 
naves,  running  parallel  with  and  united  to  each 
other ;  a  circumstance  to  be  accounted  for  from 
the  fact  of  one  having  been  the  original  church, 
and  the  other,  now  forming  the  northern  nave, 
having  been  the  church  attached  to  the  nunnery. 
In  the  northern  nave  were  till  recently  to  be  seen 
the  long  range  of  carved  seats  which  were  occu- 
pied by  the  nuns  when  at  their  devotions.  These 
seats  have  now  been  placed  near  the  altar,  and 
form  stalls  for  the  choristers.  At  the  restoration 
of  the  church,  commenced  in  1866,  some  steps 
were  discovered  against  the  northern  wall.  These 
lead  to  a  door  partly  below  the  level  of  the  present 
flooring,  and  beyond  which  is  a  portion  of  a  flight 
of  stone  stairs,  which  no  doubt  led  up  from  the 
Church  to  the  nunnery.  But  what  is  still  more 
striking  is  the  beautiful  niche,  with  its  row  of  open 
arches  beneath,  known  as  the  "Nun's  Grating," 
through  which,  when  suffering  imprisonment  for 
their  misdemeanours  in  the  crypt  below,  the  nuns 
might  view  the  high  altar,  and  witness  the  per- 
formance of  mass.  The  care  which  the  Romish 
church  took  of  the  spiritual  welfare  of  those  who 
offended  against  her  precepts  is  exhibited,  in  a 


280  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

like  manner,  by  a  small  and  gloomy  cell  which  still 
exists  in  the  Temple  Church,  through  an  aperture 
in  which  the  prisoner  could  listen  to,  and  join  in, 
the  services  of  the  church.  Probably  in  the  gloomy 
crypt  of  St.  Helen's  has  languished  many  a  fair 
girl,  whom  the  feelings  natural  to  youth  may  have 
tempted  to  steal  from  her  convent  walls,  and  to 
transgress  the  rules  of  her  Order.  There  is  extant 
a  curious  lecture  read  to  the  nuns  of  St.  Helen's, 
by  Kentwode,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  on  the  occasion 
of  his  visitation  to  the  convent  in  1439.  His  hints 
to  them  about  keeping  within  the  walls  of  the  con- 
vent, lest  "  evil  suspicion  or  slander  might  arise  " 
—  his  injunctions  to  close  the  cloister  doors,  and 
to  entrust  the  keys  to  some  "  sad  woman  and  dis- 
creet "  —  excite  suspicions  that  the  nuns  were  a 
pleasure-loving,  if  not  a  frail  sisterhood. 

The  appearance  of  the  interior  of  St.  Helen's 
Church  is  more  striking  and  at  the  same  time  far 
more  picturesque,  than  that  of  the  exterior.  At  the 
east  end  is  a  transept,  and  also  a  small  chapel,  dedi- 
cated to  the  Holy  Ghost,  part  of  which  has  been 
converted  into  a  vestry-room.  Altogether,  not- 
withstanding the  violation  of  all  artistical  rules,  the 
air  of  antiquity  which  pervades  the  building,  added 
to  the  number  of  altar-tombs  which  meet  the  eye, 
and  the  general  beauty  of  the  architectural  details, 
produce  an  effect  at  once  solemn  and  impressive. 

There  is  perhaps  no  church  in  London,  of  the 
same  dimensions,  which  can  boast  so  many  striking 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  281 

monuments  as  St.  Helen's  the  Great.  In  the 
transept  at  the  east  end  is  a  beautiful  table-tomb 
of  black  and  white  marble,  to  the  memory  of  Sir 
Julius  Caesar,  master  of  the  rolls  and  Privy  Coun- 
cillor in  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  who  was 
interred  near  the  communion-table,  on  the  i8th  of 
April,  1 636.  This  tomb,  which  was  erected  by  Sir 
Julius  in  his  lifetime,  was  the  work  of  the  famous 
sculptor,  Nicholas  Stone.  The  most  remarkable 
feature  of  it  is  the  inscription,  which  is  engraved 
on  a  piece  of  white  marble  in  the  form  of  a  parch- 
ment deed,  with  a  seal  appended  to  it.  It  purports 
to  be  a  bond,  or  engagement,  on  the  part  of  the 
deceased,  duly  signed  and  sealed,  to  deliver  up  his 
life  to  God  whenever  it  may  be  demanded  of  him. 

Another  interesting  monument,  which  formerly 
stood  close  by,  but  which  is  now  removed  to  the 
south  of  the  nave  near  the  entrance,  is  that  of  Sir 
John  Spencer,  the  "  Rich  Spencer  "  whom  we  have 
mentioned  as  the  princely  occupant  of  Crosby 
Place.  The  tomb,  which  is  composed  of  marble, 
represents  Sir  John  Spencer  and  his  wife,  Alicia 
Bloomfield,  lying  side  by  side,  and  a  woman  in  the 
attitude  of  prayer  kneeling  at  their  feet.  The 
inscription,  in  Latin,  enumerates  the  high  civic 
honours  held  by  Sir  John  ;  nor  does  it  omit  to 
mention  that  his  only  daughter,  Elizabeth,  became 
the  wife  of  William,  Lord  Compton. 

Among  other  remarkable  monuments  may  be 
mentioned  that  of  Martin  Bond,  the  father  of  Sir 


282  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

William  Bond,  whom  we  have  mentioned  as  having 
been  one  of  the  proprietors  of  Crosby  House. 
He  was  one  of  Elizabeth's  captains  at  Tilbury  at 
the  time  when  the  Spanish  Armada  was  daily 
expected,  and  from  this  circumstance  is  repre- 
sented as  sitting  in  his  tent,  two  soldiers  standing 
sentries  outside,  and  an  attendant  being  in  the  act 
of  bringing  up  his  horse.  The  inscription  is  as 
follows : 

11  Memoriae  Sacrum. 

"  Near  this  place  resteth  the  body  of  the  worthy  citizen 
and  soldier,  Martin  Bond,  Esq.,  son  of  William  Bond, 
Sheriff  and  Alderman  of  London.  He  was  Captain  in  the 
year  1588,  at  the  camp  at  Tilbury,  and  after  remained 
Captain  of  the  Trained  Bands  of  this  City  until  his  death. 
He  was  a  Merchant- Adventurer,  and  free  of  the  Company  of 
Haberdashers :  he  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty-five  years,  and 
died  in  May,  1643.  His  piety,  prudence,  courage,  and 
charity  have  left  behind  him  a  never-dying  monument." 

But  unquestionably  the  most  interesting  monu- 
ment in  St.  Helen's  Church,  not  only  from  its 
connection  with  Crosby  Place,  but  from  its  an- 
tiquity and  costly  workmanship,  is  that  of  Sir 
John  Crosby,  the  founder  of  the  old  mansion,  and 
the  munificent  renovator  of  the  church  in  the  days 
of  Edward  the  Fourth.  His  monument,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  altar,  consists  of  an  altar-tomb, 
on  which  lie  side  by  side  the  figures  of  Sir  John 
Crosby,  and  of  Agnes  his  wife,  the  former  being 
in  full  armour. 


LONDON   AND    ITS  CELEBRITIES.  283 

On  the  north  side  of  the  altar,  beneath  a  canopy 
enriched  with  columns  and  arches,  reclines  the 
figure  of  the  graceful  and  learned  Sir  William 
Pickering,  represented  also  in  full  armour.  Not 
only  is  he  described  as  having  been  one  of  the 
finest  gentlemen  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  as 
having  been  accomplished  in  polite  literature,  and 
in  all  the  arts  of  war  and  peace ;  but  so  great  was 
the  influence  which  he  is  said  to  have  established 
over  the  mind  of  Queen  Elizabeth  as  to  embolden 
him  to  aspire  to  her  hand.  A  long  Latin  inscrip- 
tion, which  is  now  effaced,  stated  that  Sir  William 
Pickering  died  on  the  4th  of  January,  1574,  at  the 
age  of  fifty-eight. 

Close  by  is  a  large  but  simple  altar-tomb,  cov- 
ered with  a  black  marble  slab,  the  monument  of 
Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  whose  charities,  magnifi- 
cence, and  virtues  we  have  already  recorded  in 
our  notice  of  his  princely  mansion  in  Bishopsgate 
Street.  The  inscription  is  as  simple  as  the  tomb 
itself  : 

"  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  Knight,  buryd  Decemb1 
the  1 5th,  1579." 

Another  prominent  feature  in  the  church  is  a 
large,  unseemly  mass  of  masonry,  disfigured  rather 
than  ornamented  by  urns,  beneath  which  lie  the 
remains  of  one  Francis  Bancroft,  who,  as  the  in- 
scription says,  purchased  the  ground  in  1723,  and 
erected  the  tomb  in  his  lifetime,  in  1726.  Ac- 
cording to  tradition,  he  amassed  a  large  fortune 


284  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

by  discreditable  means,  but  becoming  penitent 
at  the  close  of  life,  he  made  atonement  for  his 
misdeeds  by  founding  some  almshouses  at  Mile 
End,  and  by  dispensing  his  wealth  in  other  acts 
of  charity.  His  last  will  was  distinguished  by  a 
singular  provision.  Having  directed  that  his  body 
should  be  embalmed  and  placed  in  a  coffin  with- 
out fastenings,  he  applied  a  fund  for  the  annual 
preaching  of  a  sermon  in  commemoration  of  his 
death,  on  which  occasion  it  was  enjoined  that  his 
body  should  be  publicly  exhibited  to  the  almsmen, 
who  were  compelled  to  attend  on  the  occasion. 
"He  is  embalmed,"  writes  Noorthouck,  " in  a 
chest  made  with  a  lid,  having  a  pair  of  hinges, 
without  any  fastening."  The  interior  of  the  tomb 
is  still  occasionally  visited,  but  the  custom  of  an- 
nually exposing  the  shrivelled  remains  has  been 
for  many  years  discontinued. 

Before  closing  our  notices  of  St.  Helen's  Church, 
let  us  point  out,  for  the  sake  of  the  quaintness  of 
the  inscription,  a  small  old  marble  monument  on 
the  north  side  of  the  altar,  to  the  memory  of  Sir 
Andrew  Judd,  Kt,  elected  Lord  Mayor  of  Lon- 
don in  1549  : 

"  To  Russia  and  Mussova, 

To  Spayne,  Gynny,  without  fable, 

Traveld  he  by  land  and  sea ; 

Bothe  Mayre  of  London  and  Staple. 

The  commenwelthe  he  norished 
So  worthelie  in  all  his  daies, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  285 

That  ech  state  fullwell  him  loved, 

To  his  perpetuall  prayse. 
Three  wyves  he  had ;  one  was  Mary ; 

Fower  sunes,  one  mayde  had  he  by  her ; 
Annys  had  none  by  him  truly ; 

By  dame  Mary  had  one  dawghter. 
Thus,  in  the  month  of  September, 

A  thowsande  fyve  hunderd  fiftey 
And  eight,  died  this  worthie  staplar, 

Worshipynge  his  posterytye." 

In  St.  Helen's  Church  lies  buried  the  celebrated 
mathematician  and  natural  philosopher,  Robert 
Hooke,  but  without  any  monument  to  his  memory. 

Returning  from  St.  Helen's  Place  into  Bishops- 
gate  Street,  on  the  right-hand  side  is  Hounds- 
ditch,  formerly  a  filthy  ditch,  into  which  dead 
dogs  and  cats  were  usually  thrown,  but  which 
has  long  since  been  converted  into  a  street  of 
considerable  importance.  Into  this  ditch,  after 
having  been  dragged  by  his  heels  from  Baynard's 
Castle,  were  thrown  the  remains  of  the  traitor, 
Edric,  Duke  of  Mercia,  the  murderer  of  his  mas- 
ter, Edmund  Ironsides. 

Within  a  short  distance  of  Houndsditch  stood 
Hand  Alley,  built  on  the  site  of  another  of  the 
principal  receptacles  for  the  dead  during  the  rag- 
ing of  the  great  plague  in  1665.  "The  upper 
end  of  Hand  Alley,  in  Bishopsgate  Street,"  writes 
Defoe,  "  was  then  a  green  field,  and  was  taken  in 
particularly  for  Bishopsgate  parish,  though  many 
of  the  carts  out  of  the  city  brought  their  dead 


286  LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

thither  also,  particularly  out  of  the  parish  of  All- 
hallows-on-the-Wall.  This  place  I  cannot  mention 
without  much  regret.  It  was,  as  I  remember, 
about  two  or  three  years  after  the  plague  had 
ceased,  that  Sir  Robert  Clayton  came  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  the  ground ;  it  being  reported  that  all 
those  who  had  any  right  to  it  were  carried  off  by 
the  pestilence.  Certain  it  is,  the  ground  was  let 
out  to  build  upon,  or  built  upon  by  his  order. 
The  first  house  built  upon  it  was  a  large,  fair 
house,  still  standing,  which  faces  the  street  now 
called  Hand  Alley,  which,  though  called  an  alley, 
is  as  wide  as  a  street.  The  houses,  in  the  same 
row  with  that  house  northward,  are  built  on  the 
very  same  ground  where  the  poor  people  were 
buried,  and  the  bodies,  on  opening  the  ground  for 
the  foundations,  were  dug  up ;  some  of  them  re- 
maining so  plain  to  be  seen,  that  the  women's 
skulls  were  distinguished  by  their  long  hair,  and 
of  others  the  flesh  was  not  quite  perished,  so  that 
the  people  began  to  exclaim  loudly  against  it,  and 
some  suggested  that  it  might  endanger  a  return  of 
the  contagion.  After  which  the  bones  and  bodies, 
as  they  came  at  them,  were  carried  to  another  part 
of  the  same  ground,  and  thrown  all  together  into  a 
deep  pit,  dug  on  purpose,  at  the  upper  end  of  Rose 
Alley,  just  against  the  door  of  a  meeting-house. 
There  lie  the  bones  and  remains  of  near  two  thou- 
sand bodies,  carried  by  the  dead-carts  to  their 
graves  in  that  one  year." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  287 

On  the  east  side  of  Bishopsgate  Street  is  Devon- 
shire Court,  a  small  street  leading  into  Devonshire 
Square,  both  of  which  derive  their  names  from  be- 
ing the  site  of  the  London  residence  of  the  Caven- 
dishes, Earls  of  Devonshire.  Here  William,  the 
second  earl,  —  the  accomplished  courtier  of  the 
reign  of  James  the  First,  —  breathed  his  last  on 
the  2Oth  of  June,  1628,  and  here  Elizabeth  Cecil, 
widow  of  William,  the  third  earl,  was  residing  as 
late  as  1704.  The  mansion  was  originally  built 
by  one  Jasper  Fisher,  a  clerk  in  Chancery,  who 
lavished  such  large  sums  on  the  adornment  of  the 
house  and  gardens  that  it  ended  in  his  ruin,  and 
obtained  for  the  place  the  name  of  "Fisher's 
Folly."  Stow  speaks  of  it  as  "a  large  and  beau- 
tiful house,  with  gardens  of  pleasure,  bowling- 
alleys,  and  such  like.  After  passing  through  a 
succession  of  hands,  it  became  the  residence  of 
that  magnificent  courtier,  Edward  de  Vere,  seven- 
teenth Earl  of  Oxford,  lord  high  chamberlain  to 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  preeminently  conspicuous 
in  the  tournaments  and  stately  pastimes  of  her 
reign.  "He  was  of  the  highest  rank,"  writes 
Mr.  D'Israeli,  "in  great  favour  with  the  queen, 
and  in  the  style  of  the  day,  when  all  our  fashions 
and  our  poetry  were  moulding  themselves  on  the 
Italian  model,  he  was  the  '  Mirror  Tuscanismo ; ' 
and,  in  a  word,  this  coxcombical  peer,  after  a  seven 
years'  residence  in  Florence,  returned  highly  « Ital- 
ianated.'  The  ludicrous  motive  of  this  peregrina- 


288  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

tion  is  as  follows.  Haughty  of  his  descent  and 
alliance,  irritable  with  effeminate  delicacy  and  per- 
sonal vanity,  a  little  circumstance,  almost  too  mi- 
nute to  be  recorded,  inflicted  such  an  injury  on  his 
pride,  that  in  his  mind  it  required  years  of  absence 
from  the  court  of  England  ere  it  could  be  forgot- 
ten. Once,  making  a  low  obeisance  to  the  queen, 
before  the  whole  court,  this  stately  peer  suffered 
a  mischance,  which  has  happened,  it  is  said,  on  a 
like  occasion.  This  accident  so  sensibly  hurt  his 
mawkish  delicacy,  and  so  humbled  his  aristocratic 
dignity,  that  he  could  not  raise  his  eyes  on  his 
royal  mistress.  He  resolved  from  that  day  to  be 
a  banished  man,  and  resided  for  seven  years  in 
Italy,  living  in  more  grandeur  at  Florence  than 
the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany.  He  spent  in  three 
years  forty  thousand  pounds.  On  his  return,  he 
presented  the  queen  with  embroidered  gloves  and 
perfumes,  then  for  the  first  time  introduced  into 
England,  as  Stow  has  noticed.  The  queen  re- 
ceived them  graciously,  and  was  even  painted 
wearing  those  gloves ;  but  my  authority  states 
that  the  masculine  sense  of  Elizabeth  could  not 
abstain  from  congratulating  the  noble  coxcomb ; 
perceiving,  she  said,  that  at  length  my  lord  had 
forgot  the  mentioning  the  little  mischance  of 
seven  years  ago."  When  Queen  ,Elizabeth  paid 
visits  to  the  city,  she  was  frequently  entertained 
at  Oxford  House.  From  the  De  Veres  it  passed 
directly  into  the  possession  of  the  Cavendishes. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  289 

Nearly  opposite  to  Devonshire  Court,  on  the 
west  side  of  Bishopsgate  Street,  stands  St.  Bo- 
tolph's  Church,  erected  between  the  years  1725 
and  1728.  On  the  north  wall  is  to  be  seen  the 
tomb  of  Sir  Paul  Pindar,  to  which  we  have  already 
referred.  Many  instances  of  Sir  Paul's  munifi- 
cence are  to  be  traced  in  the  parish  books  of  St. 
Botolph's.  Among  these  is  recorded  the  gift  of 
a  gigantic  pasty,  —  probably  an  annual  donation,  — 
of  which  the  mere  "flour,  butter,  pepper,  eggs, 
making,  and  baking  "  cost  no  less  than  19^.  yd., 
no  insignificant  sum  in  the  days  of  Charles  the 
First.  Among  other  entries  in  the  books  of  the 
parish,  is  one  of  1 1 s.t  in  1578,  "paid  for  frankin- 
cense and  flowers  when  the  chancellor  sat  with 
us." 

In  the  churchyard  is  a  curious  tomb,  inscribed 
with  Persian  characters,  to  the  memory  of  Hodges 
Shaughsware,  who  came  to  England  with  his  son 
as  secretary  to  the  Persian  ambassador  in  the  reign 
of  James  the  First,  and  who  was  buried  on  the 
loth  of  August,  1626.  His  son  presided  over  the 
ceremonial  of  his  interment,  reading  certain 
prayers  and  using  other  ceremonies  according  to 
the  custom  of  their  country,  both  morning  and 
evening  for  a  whole  month  after  the  burial.  The 
monument  was  set  up  at  the  charge  of  his  son, 
who  caused  to  be  engraved  on  it  certain  Persian 
characters,  of  which  the  following  is  said  to  be  a 
translation  :  "  This  grave  is  made  for  Hodges 


290  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Shaughsware,  the  chiefest  servant  to  the  King  of 
Persia,  for  the  span  of  twenty  years,  who  came 
from  the  King  of  Persia,  and  died  in  his  service. 
If  any  Persian  cometh  out  of  that  country,  let  him 
read  this,  and  pray  for  him.  The  Lord  receive  his 
soul,  for  here  lieth  Maghmote  Shaughsware,  who 
was  born  in  the  town  Noroy,  in  Persia." 

The  funeral  ceremony  took  place  between  eight 
and  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning ;  the  body  being 
followed  to  the  grave  by  the  ambassador  and  the 
other  Persians  belonging  to  the  embassy.  At  the 
north  end  of  the  grave  sat  the  son,  cross-legged, 
who  alternately  read  or  sang  some  plaintive  strain, 
his  reading  and  singing  being  intermixed  with  the 
weeping  and  lamentations  of  the  other  mourners. 
These  ceremonies  were  continued  twice  a  day,  a 
certain  number  of  the  Persians  repairing  to  the 
grave  every  morning  at  six  o'clock,  and  at  the  same 
hour  in  the  evening,  to  offer  up  prayers  for  their 
deceased  friend. 

Bishopsgate  Street  leads  us  into  Shoreditch, 
from  the  west  side  of  which  diverges  Holy  well 
Lane,  the  site  of  a  nunnery  of  great  antiquity, 
dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Baptist.  In  1539,  at  the 
dissolution  of  the  monastic  houses,  it  surrendered 
to  Henry  the  Eighth,  when  the  "church  thereof 
being  pulled  down,  many  houses  were  built  for 
the  lodgings  of  noblemen,  of  strangers  born,  and 
others."  Close  by  stood  the  Curtain  playhouse, 
supposed  to  have  been  established  about  the  year 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  291 

1576,  and  suppressed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
First.  Stow,  speaking  of  the  old  nunnery,  ob- 
serves :  "  Near  thereunto  are  builded  two  publique 
houses,  for  the  acting  and  shew  of  comedies,  trage- 
dies, and  histories,  for  recreation.  Whereof  one 
is  called  the  Curtain,  the  other,  the  Theatre ;  both 
standing  on  the  southwest  side,  toward  the  field." 
The  site  of  the  Curtain  theatre  is  still  pointed  out 
by  Curtain  Road,  to  the  west  of  High  Street, 
Shoreditch,  formerly  called  Holywell  Street.  In 
the  latter  street,  Richard  Burbage,  the  fellow  actor 
and  friend  of  Shakespeare,  lived  and  died.  The 
theatre,  which  stood  in  Holywell  Lane,  is  said  to 
have  been  the  oldest  building  erected  for  scenic 
exhibitions  in  London. 

Norton  Folgate  leads  us  into  Shoreditch,  an- 
ciently a  retired  village  situated  on  the  old  Roman 
highway  leading  into  London.  It  has  been  sup- 
posed to  have  derived  its  name  from  the  husband 
of  Jane  Shore,  the  beautiful  concubine  of  Edward 
the  Fourth,  but  this  is  not  the  case.  Much  more 
reason  there  is  for  believing  that  it  owes  its  appel- 
lation to  one  of  the  ancestors  of  Sir  John  de  Sor- 
dich,  an  eminent  warrior,  lawyer,  and  statesman 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third,  whose  family 
appear  for  centuries  to  have  been  in  possession 
of  the  manor. 

The  parish  church  of  St.  Leonard,  Shoreditch, 
was  rebuilt  in  1 740,  by  Dance,  the  architect  of  the 
Mansion  House,  and  is  interesting  as  containing 


292  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  remains  of  many  eminent  actors,  who  "  fretted 
their  hour  "  in  the  neighbouring  playhouses.1 

As  late  as  the  days  of  Henry  the  Eighth  Shore- 
ditch  stood  in  the  open  fields,  at  which  time  it  was 
famous  for  the  expertness  of  its  archers.  Among 
these  was  one  Barlo,  who  displayed  such  extraor- 
dinary skill  in  the  presence  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
during  some  sports  in  Windsor  Park,  that  the  king 
jocularly  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  Duke  of 
Shoreditch.  This  title  was  long  afterward  assumed 
by  the  captain  of  the  archers  of  London  at  their 
festive  meetings  and  trials  of  skill ;  his  partisans 
or  supporters  at  the  same  time  adopting  such  titles 
as  Marquis  of  Islington,  Hoxton,  and  other  ludi- 
crous appellations  of  honour.  It  may  be  mentioned 
that  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  the  archers 
of  London  numbered  no  fewer  than  three  thou- 

1  The  parish  register  (within  a  period  of  sixty  years)  records 
the  interment  of  the  following  celebrated  characters :  Will  Som- 
ers,  Henry  the  Eighth's  jester  (d.  1560);  Richard  Tarlton,  the 
famous  clown  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  (d.  1588);  James  Bur- 
bage  (d.  1596),  and  his  more  celebrated  son,  Richard  Burbage 
(d.  1618-19);  Gabriel  Spenser,  the  player,  who  fell,  in  1598, 
in  a  duel  with  Ben  Jonson  ;  William  Sly  and  Richard  Cowley, 
two  original  performers  in  Shakespeare's  plays;  the  Countess  of 
Rutland,  the  only  child  of  the  famous  Sir  Philip  Sydney ;  Fortu- 
natus  Greene,  the  unfortunate  offspring  of  Robert  Greene,  the 
poet  and  player  (d.  1593).  Another  original  performer  in  Shake- 
speare's plays,  who  lived  in  Holywell  Street,  in  this  parish,  was 
Nicholas  Wilkinson,  alias  Tooley,  whose  name  is  recorded  in  gilt 
letters  on  the  north  side  of  the  altar  as  a  yearly  benefactor  of 
£6  ioj.  still  distributed  in  bread  every  year  to  the  poor  of  the 
parish,  to  whom  it  was  bequeathed. 


LONDON   AND  ITS    CELEBRITIES.  293 

sand,  of  whom  one  thousand  had  gold  chains. 
Their  guard  consisted  of  four  thousand  men,  be- 
sides pages  and  henchmen ;  their  meetings,  which 
usually  took  place  at  Smithfield,  being  conducted 
with  considerable  magnificence. 

During  the  raging  of  the  great  plague,  in  1665, 
there  were  few  districts  in  London  which  suffered 
more  severely  than  Shoreditch  and  its  immediate 
vicinity.  "The  terror,"  writes  Defoe,  "was  so 
great  at  last,  that  the  courage  of  the  people  ap- 
pointed to  carry  away  the  dead  began  to  fail  them ; 
nay,  several  of  them  died,  although  they  had  the 
distemper  before,  and  were  recovered,  and  some  of 
them  dropped  down  when  they  have  been  carrying 
the  bodies,  even  at  the  pitside,  and  just  ready  to 
throw  them  in.  One  cart,  they  told  us,  going  up 
Shoreditch,  was  forsaken  of  the  drivers,  and  being 
left  to  one  man  to  drive,  he  died  in  the  street,  and 
the  horses  going  on,  overthrew  the  cart,  and  left 
the  bodies,  some  thrown  out  here,  some  there,  in 
a  dismal  manner." 

Close  to  Shoreditch  is  Hoxton,  wherein  still 
stands  the  mansion  of  Oliver,  third  Lord  St.  John 
of  Bletsoe,  who  died  in  1618.  It  was  in  Hoxton 
Fields  that  Gabriel  Spenser,  the  actor,  was  killed 
in  a  duel  by  Ben  Jonson.  Spenser's  residence  was 
in  Hog  Lane,  Norton  Folgate. 

On  the  east  side  of  Bishopsgate  Street  is  Spit- 
alfields,  which,  in  the  reign  of  James  the  First, 
sprang  up  on  the  site  of  some  fair  meadows  and 


294  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

lanes,  known  as  the  Spital  Fields,  but  which  now 
comprise  one  of  the  most  crowded  districts  in  the 
metropolis.  It  derives  its  name  from  the  priory 
of  St.  Mary  Spital,  founded  in  1197,  for  canons 
regular  of  the  order  of  St.  Augustine,  by  one  Wal- 
ter Brune,  citizen  of  London,  and  Rosia,  his  wife. 
At  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  the  priory  of  St.  Mary  Spital 
shared  the  fate  of  the  other  religious  houses.  For 
centuries  its  holy  tenants  had  administered  to  the 
wants  of  the  sick  and  needy,  and  accordingly  thou- 
sands wept  over  its  demolition.  At  its  dissolution, 
indeed,  it  was  found  to  contain  no  fewer  than  one 
hundred  and  eighty  beds,  which  had  been  set  apart 
for  poor  travellers  and  persons  in  sickness  and 
distress. 

The  old  priory  appears  to  have  stood  on  and 
near  the  site  of  the  present  White  Lion  Street. 
Close  by,  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Spital  Square, 
stood  the  famous  Spital  pulpit  or  cross,  where  for 
nearly  three  centuries  sermons  were  preached 
three  times  during  Easter,  to  the  citizens  of  Lon- 
don, who  assembled  there  in  the  open  air.  (3n 
these  occasions,  the  lord  mayor  and  aldermen 
never  failed  to  attend  in  their  robes  of  state ; 
indeed,  in  such  repute  were  the  "  Spital  sermons  " 
held  by  our  ancestors,  that  we  find  them  fre- 
quented in  great  state  both  by  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  by  her  successor,  James  the  First.  On  the 
occasion  of  the  former  sovereign  visiting  Spital 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  295 

Cross  in  April,  1559,  her  guard  consisted  of  a 
thousand  men  in  complete  armour,  who  marched 
to  the  sound  of  drum  and  trumpet ;  her  progress 
being  enlivened  by  the  grotesque  antics  of  morris- 
dancers,  while  "in  a  cart  were  two  white  bears." 
The  Spital  Cross  was  demolished  during  the  civil 
troubles  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  First.  After 
the  Restoration,  the  Spital  sermons  were  preached 
at  St.  Bride's,  Fleet  Street,  where  the  custom  con- 
tinued to  prevail  till  within  the  last  sixty  years, 
when  it  was  transferred  to  Christ's  Church,  New- 
gate Street.  Here  they  are  still  attended  by  the 
lord  mayor,  aldermen,  and  other  dignitaries  con- 
nected with  the  principal  metropolitan  charities. 

The  old  Spital  Fields  are  now  formed  into  a  num- 
ber of  streets,  lanes,  and  allies,  which  are  principally 
inhabited  by  the  artisans  employed  in  those  cele- 
brated silk  manufactures  which  have  rendered  the 
name  of  this  district  so  famous.  Not  a  few  of 
the  inhabitants  are  the  descendants  of  the  unfor- 
tunate Huguenots  who  fled  from  France  in  1685, 
to  avoid  the  cruel  persecution  which  followed  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  To  that  pro- 
scription, as  impolitic  as  it  was  barbarous,  we  owe 
the  foundation  and  establishment  of  silk  manufac- 
ture in  England. 

Christchurch,  Spitalfields,  was  built  by  Nicho- 
las Hawksmore,  a  pupil  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren. 
Here  was  the  great  burial-place  of  the  Romans 
for  persons  who  died  within  the  walls  of  the  city. 


296  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

We  learn  from  Granger  that  in  Pelham  Street, 
Spitalfields,  Milton's  granddaughter,  Mrs.  Foster, 
kept  a  chandler's  shop. 

The  celebrated  statesman,  Lord  Bolingbroke,  is 
said  to  have  resided  in  a  house  on  the  north  side  of 
Spital  Square.  In  the  immediate  neighbourhood, 
too,  was  born  the  great  ecclesiastical  historian, 
John  Strype. 

To  the  northeast  of  Spitalfields  is  Bethnal  Green, 
anciently  a  retired  hamlet,  comprising,  in  Queen 
Elizabeth's  days,  a  few  scattered  cottages  and  farm- 
houses, which  surrounded  the  episcopal  palace  of 
the  merciless  Edmund  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London, 
from  whom  Bonner's  Fields  derive  their  name. 
The  church,  dedicated  to  St.  Matthew  the  Evan- 
gelist, was  erected  in  1 740,  at  the  northeast  corner 
of  Hare  Street,  Spitalfields.  Three  years  after- 
ward, this  district  having  been  found  to  contain  a 
population  of  as  many  as  fifteen  thousand  inhabit- 
ants, an  act  of  Parliament  was  passed  for  forming 
the  hamlet  of  Bethnal  Green  into  a  distinct  parish. 

Pepys  writes,  on  the  26th  of  June,  1661  :  "By 
coach  to  Bednall-Green,  to  Sir  W.  Rider's  to 
dinner.  A  fine  merry  walk  with  the  ladies  alone 
after  dinner  in  the  garden ;  the  greatest  quantity 
of  strawberries  I  ever  saw,  and  good.  This  very 
house  was  built  by  the  Blind  Beggar  of  Bednall- 
Green,  so  much  talked  of  and  sung  in  ballads ; 
but  they  say  it  was  only  some  of  the  outhouses 
of  it." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  297 

"  It  was  a  blind  beggar,  had  long  lost  his  sight, 
He  had  a  fair  daughter  of  bewty  most  bright; 
And  many  a  gallant  brave  suitor  had  shee, 
For  none  was  so  comelye  as  pretty  Bessee. 

"  And  though  she  was  of  favour  most  faire, 
Yett  seeing  shee  was  but  a  poor  beggar's  heyre, 
Of  ancyent  housekeepers  despised  was  shee, 
Whose  sonnes  came  as  suitors  to  pretty  Bessee. 


"  My  father,  shee  said,  is  soone  to  be  scene, 
The  seely  blind  beggar  of  Bednall-greene  ; 
That  daylye  sits  begging  for  charitie, 
He  is  the  good  father  of  pretty  Bessee. 

"  His  markes  and  his  tokens  are  known  very  well ; 
He  always  is  led  with  a  dog  and  a  bell ; 
A  seely  old  man,  God  knoweth  is  hee, 
Yett  hee  is  the  father  of  pretty  Bessee." 

Before  we  take  leave  of  this  remote  neighbour- 
hood, we  must  not  omit  a  brief  mention  of  the  old 
Artillery  Ground,  which  occupied  the  site  of  Duke 
Street,  Steward  Street,  Sun  Street,  and  other 
adjacent  streets  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Spital- 
fields.  It  was  originally  known  by  the  designation 
of  Tasell's  Close,  from  having  been  anciently  a 
spot  of  ground  where  the  tassells  or  teasles,  used 
in  the  manufacture  of  cloth,  were  cultivated.  Sub- 
sequently, William,  the  last  Prior  of  St.  Mary 
Spital,  granted  it  for  three  times  ninety-nine  years 
to  the  fraternity  of  artillery,  or  gunners  of  the 
Tower.  The  ground  was  laid  out  expressly  for 


298  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  purpose  of  proving  the  artillery,  for  gunnery 
practice,  and  other  military  purposes,  and  thus 
obtained  the  name  of  the  Artillery  Garden.  Stow 
informs  us  that  in  his  time  the  gunners  of  the 
Tower  used  to  repair  hither  every  Thursday,  to 
exercise  their  great  artillery  against  a  mound  of 
earth,  which  served  as  a  butt.  In  1622,  the 
Artillery  Company  removed  to  an  area  on  the  west 
side  of  Finsbury  Square,  which  thus  obtained  the 
name  of  the  new  Artillery  Ground.  It  was  not, 
however,  till  some  years  afterward  that  the  old 
Artillery  Ground,  as  we  learn  from  Strype,  was 
entirely  neglected.  "In  the  afternoon,"  writes 
Pepys,  on  the  2Oth  of  April,  1669,  "we  walked 
to  the  old  Artillery  Ground,  Spitalfields,  where 
I  never  was  before,  but  now  by  Captain  Deane's 
invitation  did  go  to  see  his  new  gun  tried,  this 
being  the  place  where  the  officers  of  the  ordnance 
do  try  all  their  great  guns."  Artillery  Lane  and 
Fort  Street  still  remain  to  point  out  the  immediate 
site  of  the  old  Artillery  Ground. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

LONDON    WALL,    AUSTIN    FRIARS,    ETC. 

Original  Extent  of  London  Wall  —  Its  Gates  —  The  City  Ditch  — 
Broad  Street  —  Austin  Friars  —  Monuments  There  —  Win- 
chester House  —  Finsbury  and  Moorfields  —  Bedlam  —  Moor- 
gate  Street  —  New  Artillery  Ground  —  Milton  —  Bunhill  Row 
—  Bunhill  Fields'  Burial-ground  —  Celebrated  Persons  Buried 
There  —  Grub  Street  —  Hoole  and  Doctor  Johnson. 

HAVING  retraced  our  steps  to  Bishopsgate  Street 
Within,  let  us  turn  down  the  long  and  narrow 
street  called  London  Wall,  which  anciently  ran 
parallel  with  the  north  wall  of  the  city.  When  the 
Romans,  in  the  fifth  century,  found  themselves 
compelled  to  abandon  their  conquests  in  Britain, 
they  left  London  encircled  by  a  wall  twenty-two 
feet  high,  and  measuring,  in  its  circuit  from  the 
Tower  to  Blackfriars,,  two  miles  and  a  furlong  in 
length.  In  addition  to  two  principal  fortresses,  the 
wall  was  defended  by  thirteen  towers,  erected  at 
advantageous  distances,  and  supposed  to  have  been 
about  forty  feet  in  height.  There  were  originally 
but  three  entrances  into  the  city ;  one  at  Aldgate 
on  the  east  ;  another  near  Aldersgate  Street  on 
the  north  ;  and  at  Ludgate  in  the  west.  At  later 
299 


300  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

periods  were  added  Newgate,  Cripplegate,  Moor- 
gate,  Bishopsgate,  and  the  Postern  on  Tower  Hill. 
The  wall  commenced  at  the  Tower,  the  principal 
Roman  fortress  in  London.  Thence  it  ran  in  a 
straight  line  to  Aldgate,  where  it  commenced  a 
semicircular  route  by  the  Minories,  Houndsditch, 
and  along  London  Wall  to  Cripplegate.  Here  the 
north  wall  terminated  nearly  in  an  angle,  and,  tak- 
ing a  southerly  direction,  descended  by  the  way  of 
Aldersgate  and  Newgate  to  the  Thames,  where 
it  united  itself  with  another  Tower,  or  Arx  Pala- 
tina,  which  stood  a  little  to  the  east  of  Blackfriars 
Bridge. 

Of  the  ancient  wall  erected  by  the  Romans 
several  fragments  existed  within  the  last  hundred 
years.  Pennant,  writing  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  observes,  "  On  the  back  of  Bethlehem  Hos- 
pital is  a  long  street,  called  London  Wall,  from 
being  bounded  on  the  north  by  a  long  extent  of 
the  wall,  in  which  are  here  and  there  a  few  traces 
of  the  Roman  masonry."  The  most  perfect  re- 
mains now  extant  of  the  old  London  wall  are  in 
an  unfrequented  and  gloomy  spot,  the  churchyard 
of  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate.  A  specimen  may  also 
be  seen  at  the  corner  of  a  narrow  passage  leading 
from  St.  Martin's  Court,  Ludgate  Hill. 

Between  the  period  of  the  erection  of  the  city 
walls  by  the  Romans  and  the  addition  of  the  city 
ditch,  no  fewer  than  nine  hundred  years  were 
allowed  to  elapse.  Both  were  stupendous  works. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  301 

The  one  was  commenced  about  the  year  306, 
during  the  reign  of  Constantius  ;  the  other  in  1211. 
The  ditch  had  originally  been  made  by  the  citizens 
of  London  at  their  own  expense  and  labour,  ap- 
parently to  protect  themselves  against  the  tyranny 
and  aggressions  of  King  John.  That  their  descend- 
ants took  a  deep  interest  in  the  work  of  their  fore- 
fathers is  evident  from  the  money  and  labour  which 
they  expended  for  nearly  three  centuries  in  keeping 
the  ditch  cleansed,  as  well  as  to  render  it  available 
for  military  purposes.  As  late  as  the  days  of  Stow 
it  was  famous  for  the  quantity  of  perch  and  carp 
with  which  it  provided  the  tables  of  the  wealthy 
citizens.  The  old  antiquary,  however,  lived  to 
bewail  the  destruction  of  this  interesting  relic  of 
the  feudal  times.  The  last  outlay  of  money  which 
was  expended  on  the  city  ditch  was  in  1595,  not 
many  years  after  which,  it  was  covered  with  build- 
ings. Not  a  trace  of  it,  we  believe,  is  now  in 
existence. 

Passing  along  London  Wall,  on  the  left  is  Broad 
Street,  where,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
stood  the  London  mansion  of  Gilbert,  Earl  of 
Salisbury.  Here,  in  the  following  century,  was 
an  establishment  for  the  manufacture  of  Venetian 
glass,  of  which  James  Howell,  the  author  of  the 
"  Familiar  Letters,"  was  steward.  Here  also  it  was 
that  General  Monk  quartered  himself  immediately 
before  he  declared  in  favour  of  the  Restoration. 
According  to  Whitelocke,  Monk  was  followed 


302  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

thither  by  a  multitude  of  people  who  "congratu- 
lated his  coming  into  the  city,  making  loud  shouts 
and  bonfires,  and  ringing  the  bells." 

Broad  Street  leads  us  into  Austin  Friars.  Here 
formerly  stood  a  priory  of  Mendicant,  or  Begging 
Friars,  founded  in  1253  by  Humphrey  de  Bohun, 
Earl  of  Hereford  and  Essex,  and  dedicated  to  St. 
Augustin,  Bishop  of  Hippo  in  Africa.  At  its  dis- 
solution, in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  the 
greater  part  of  the  ground  on  which  it  stood  was 
granted  by  that  monarch  to  William,  first  Marquis 
of  Winchester,  his  comptroller  of  the  household 
and  lord  high  treasurer.  All  that  remains  of  the 
old  priory  is  the  church,  which  was  granted  by  Ed- 
ward the  Sixth  to  a  congregation  of  Germans  and 
other  foreigners,  who  had  emigrated  to  England  to 
escape  from  religious  persecution.  Succeeding 
monarchs  confirmed  it  to  the  Dutch,  by  whom  it 
is  still  used  as  a  place  of  worship,  being  usually 
known  by  the  appellation  of  the  Dutch  Church. 

Beautiful  as  are  the  remains  of  the  old  priory 
church,  there  is  no  religious  edifice  in  London 
which  has  suffered  more  cruelly  from  time  and 
neglect.  Its  magnificent  tombs,  as  well  as  its 
exquisite  spire,  considered  the  "  beautifullest  and 
rarest  spectacle  "  in  the  metropolis,  have  entirely 
disappeared.  Nevertheless,  the  number  of  the 
illustrious  and  ill-fated  dead  who  rest  beneath 
our  feet  will  always  render  the  church  of  St. 
Augustin  a  most  interesting  spot.  Here  lies 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  303 

the  pious  founder  of  the  priory,  Humphrey  de 
Bohun,  who  stood  godfather  at  the  font  for  Edward 
the  First,  and  who  afterward  fought  against  Henry 
the  Third  with  the  leagued  barons  at  the  battle  of 
Evesham.  Here  were  interred  the  remains  of  the 
great  Hubert  de  Burgh,  Earl  of  Kent,  the  most 
powerful  subject  in  Europe  during  the  reigns  of 
King  John  and  Henry  the  Third,  and  no  less  cele- 
brated for  his  chequered  and  romantic  fortunes. 
Here  rests  Edmund,  son  of  Joan  Plantagenet,  "  the 
Fair  Maid  of  Kent,"  and  half-brother  to  Richard 
the  Second.  Here  lies  the  headless  trunk  of  the 
gallant  Richard  Fitzalan,  tenth  Earl  of  Arundel, 
who  was  executed  at  Cheapside  in  1397.  Here 
also  rest  the  mangled  remains  of  the  barons  who 
fell  at  the  battle  of  Barnet  in  1471,  and  who  were 
interred  together  in  the  body  of  the  church  ;  of 
John  de  Vere,  twelfth  Earl  of  Oxford,  who  was 
beheaded  on  Tower  Hill  with  his  eldest  son, 
Aubrey,  in  1461  ;  and  lastly  of  the  gallant  and 
princely  Edward  Stafford,  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
—  "  poor  Edward  Bohun,"  —  who,  having  fallen  a 
victim  to  the  vindictive  jealousy  of  Cardinal  Wol- 
sey,  was  beheaded  on  Tower  Hill  in  1521. 

To  the  memory  of  these  ill-fated  persons,  as 
well  as  to  many  others  conspicuous  in  their  day 
for  rank,  beauty,  or  genius,  St.  Augustin's  could 
formerly  boast  of  monuments  more  numerous  and 
sumptuous  than  those  of  any  other  church  in  Lon- 
don. To  the  cupidity,  however,  of  the  second 


304  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Marquis  of  Winchester,  who  converted  the  old 
church  into  a  lumber  warehouse,  and  sold  the 
tombs  to  the  highest  bidder,  we  owe  this  shame- 
ful desecration  of  the  dead,  as  well  as  the  destruc- 
tion of  so  much  that  was  beautiful  in  art. 

Behind  the  Dutch  Church,  close  to  London 
Wall,  stood  the  "  Papey,"  founded  in  1430  for  a 
fraternity  of  poor  infirm  priests  of  the  order  of  St. 
Charity  and  St.  John  the  Evangelist.  They  were 
skilled  in  singing  funeral  dirges;  their  principal 
occupation  consisting  in  attending  the  burials  of 
the  rich,  from  which  circumstance  they  were  styled 
flleureurs,  weepers,  or  mourners,  and  in  this  capac- 
ity are  frequently  represented  on  the  sides  of 
ancient  monuments.  The  house  of  the  Papeys 
subsequently  became  the  residence  of  Sir  Francis 
Walsingham. 

In  1621,  when  the  great  Earl  of  Strafford  first 
obtained  a  seat  in  Parliament  as  representative  for 
the  county  of  York,  it  was  in  Austin  Friars  that 
he  took  up  his  residence  with  his  young  chil- 
dren and  with  that  fair  wife  whom  he  lost  by 
death  the  following  year,  and  to  whom  he  so 
touchingly  alluded  as  a  "  saint  in  Heaven  "  at  his 
famous  trial  scene  in  Westminster  Hall.  In 
Austin  Friars  also  died,  in  July,  1776,  in  his 
seventieth  year,  James  Heywood,  who  more  than 
sixty  years  previously  had  been  one  of  the  popular 
writers  in  the  Spectator.  He  is  said  to  have  origi- 
nally been  a  wholesale  linen-draper  on  Fish  Street 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  305 

Hill.  The  late  James  Smith,  one  of  the  authors 
of  the  "Rejected  Addresses,"  lived  at  No.  18 
Austin  Friars,  previously  to  his  removal  to  Craven 
Street,  Strand,  where  he  died. 

Adjoining  Austin  Friars  is  Winchester  Street, 
which,  with  its  picturesque  gable-ends,  and  its  gen- 
eral appearance  of  antiquity,  afforded,  till  within  a 
few  years,  a  better  notion  of  the  aspect  of  a  Lon- 
don street  in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  than 
perhaps  any  other  street  in  the  metropolis.  Here 
stood  the  London  residence  of  the  Paulets,  Mar- 
quises of  Winchester.  It  was  built  by  the  first 
marquis,  who  was  also  the  founder  of  Basing 
House.  This  remarkable  man  died  in  1572,  in 
his  ninety-seventh  year,  leaving  at  his  death  no 
fewer  than  one  hundred  and  three  persons  who 
were  immediately  descended  from  him.  He  had 
lived  under  the  reign  of  nine  sovereigns,  his  birth 
having  taken  place  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Sixth,  and  his  death  in  that  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Being  asked  by  what  means  he  had  contrived  to 
maintain  himself  in  favour  and  power  under  so 
many  reigns  and  during  so  many  political  tem- 
pests, his  significant  reply  was,  "By  being  a 
willow,  and  not  an  oak." 

Winchester  House,  at  the  period  of  its  demoli- 
tion in  1839,  was  one  °f  tne  most  interesting 
specimens  of  the  dwelling-houses  of  the  ancient 
nobility  which  remained  in  London.  It  continued 
to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  Paulets  till  the  reign 


306  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

of  James  the  First,  when  William,  the  fourth  mar- 
quis, became  so  impoverished  by  his  magnificent 
style  of  living  as  to  be  compelled  to  dispose  of 
it  for  the  payment  of  his  debts.  It  appears  to 
have  then  been  purchased  by  John  Swinnerton,  a 
rich  merchant,  afterward  Lord  Mayor  of  London. 
When,  shortly  before  their  demolition,  we  bade 
farewell  to  apartments  which  had  entertained 
Elizabeth  and  her  stately  courtiers,  we  found 
them  the  scene  of  busy  trade,  and  were  informed 
by  their  owner  that  the  old  house  had  been  in  the 
possession  of  his  ancestors  for  about  two  centuries. 
Notwithstanding  this  long  lapse  of  time,  on  many 
of  the  windows  were  still  to  be  seen,  in  stained 
glass,  the  motto  of  the  Paulets,  " Aimez  Loyaultf" 
This  circumstance  was  rendered  the  more  interest- 
ing, from  the  well-known  incident  of  the  gallant 
Marquis  of  Winchester,  during  his  glorious  defence 
of  Basing  House,  having  engraved  this  motto  of 
his  family  with  a  diamond  pencil  on  every  window 
in  the  mansion.  Probably  it  was  the  early  recol- 
lection of  this  peculiar  feature  in  the  London  resi- 
dence of  his  forefathers  which  suggested  to  the 
heroic  marquis  the  idea  of  inscribing  the  same 
words  on  the  windows  of  the  besieged  mansion. 

It  was  in  the  apartments  of  her  mother,  the 
Countess  of  Cumberland,  in  "Austin  Friars 
House,"  that  Anne  Clifford  —  memorable  for 
her  haughty  reply  to  the  minister  of  Charles 
the  Second  —  was  married  to  her  first  husband, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  307 

Richard,  third  Earl  of  Dorset,  on  the  2 5th  of 
February,  1608-9. 

Nearly  at  the  end  of  Little  Winchester  Street 
is  the  church  of  Allhallows-in-the-Wall.  It  es- 
caped the  ravages  of  the  great  fire,  but,  having 
fallen  into  a  ruinous  state,  was  taken  down  in 
1764,  when  the  present  edifice  was  erected  by 
the  younger  Dance  on  its  site.  In  the  chancel 
may  be  seen  a  tablet  to  the  memory  of  the  Rev. 
William  Beloe,  the  translator  of  Herodotus,  who 
died  in  1817,  after  having  held  the  rectory  of  the 
parish  for  twenty  years. 

The  ground  to  the  north  of  London  Wall  — 
comprising  Finsbury  Circus,  Little  Moorfields, 
Finsbury  Square,  etc.  —  consisted,  as  late  as  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  of  large  fenny  pas- 
tures, known  as  Moor  Fields  and  Fensbury.  The 
dog-house,  in  which  were  kept  the  hounds  of  the 
Lord  Mayors  of  London,  stood  on  the  east  side. 
On  the  west  was  to  be  seen  the  manor-house 
of  Finsbury,  while,  to  the  north,  three  or  four 
scattered  windmills  were  the  only  objects  which 
diversified  the  scene. 

Not  only  as  far  back  as  the  twelfth  century 
were  Finsbury  and  Moorfields  favourite  places  of 
recreation  for  the  citizens  of  London,  but  so  late 
as  the  days  of  Charles  the  Second  we  find  Shad- 
well  and  Pepys  severally  speaking  of  the  cudgel- 
play  and  wrestling-matches  in  Moorfields.  Heath, 
in  his  "  Chronicle,"  tells  us  that  from  "time  out  of 


308  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

mind  "  it  had  been  the  scene  of  wrestling-matches, 
and  throwing  the  bar,  to  which  sports  we  may  add 
those  of  archery,  boxing,  foot-races,  football,  and 
every  kind  of  manly  recreation.  Skating  has  gen- 
erally been  supposed  to  have  been  first  introduced 
into  England  by  Charles  the  Second  on  his  return 
from  exile ;  and  yet  there  is  a  curious  passage  in 
Fitzstephen  —  the  earliest  historian  of  London  — 
which  shows  that  the  art,  or  at  least  something 
very  nearly  approaching  to  it,  was  practised  by 
the  citizens  of  London  as  early  as  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Speaking  of  the  pastimes  on  the  ice  in 
Moorfields,  he  writes :  "  Others  there  are  more 
expert  in  these  amusements ;  they  place  certain 
bones,  the  leg  bones  of  animals,  under  the  soles 
of  their  feet,  by  tying  them  round  their  ankles, 
and  then,  taking  a  pole  shod  with  iron  into  their 
hands,  they  push  themselves  forward  by  striking  it 
against  the  ice,  and  are  carried  on  with  a  velocity 
equal  to  the  flight  of  a  bird,  or  a  bolt  discharged 
from  a  crossbow."  The  piece  of  water  on  which 
the  citizens  of  London  performed  their  pastimes  is 
spoken  of  by  Fitzstephen  as  "the  Great  Fen  or 
Moor  which  watereth  the  walls  of  the  city  on  the 
north  side." 

It  was  in  Finsbury  Fields,  on  his  return  after 
his  exploits  in  Scotland,  that  the  great  Protector, 
Duke  of  Somerset,  was  met  and  congratulated  by 
the  lord  mayor,  aldermen,  and  citizens  of  Lon- 
don. According  to  the  chronicler  Holinshed : 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  309 

"The  mayor  and  aldermen,  with  certain  of  the 
commons,  in  their  liveries  and  their  hoods,  hearing 
of  his  approach  to  the  city,  the  8th  of  October 
(1548),  met  him  in  Finsbury  Fields,  where  he  took 
each  of  them  by  the  hand,  and  thanked  them  for 
their  good  wills.  The  lord  mayor  did  ride  with 
him  till  they  came  to  the  pond  in  Smithfield, 
where  his  Grace  left  them  and  rode  to  his  house 
of  Shene  that  night,  and  the  next  day  to  the  king 
to  Hampton  Court." 

Finsbury,  notwithstanding  the  marshy  nature  of 
the  ground,  appears  to  have  contained  some  sunny 
and  pleasant  spots.  "  Morefield,"  on  the  contrary, 
is  mentioned  as  a  "most  noysome  and  offensive 
place,  being  a  general  laystall,  a  rotten  morish 
ground,  whereof  it  first  took  the  name."  "This 
field,"  writes  Stow,  "was  for  many  years  environed 
and  crossed  with  deep  stinking  ditches,  and  noy- 
some common  sewers,  and  was  of  former  times 
ever  held  impossible  to  be  reformed,  especially  to 
be  reduced  to  any  part  of  that  fair,  sweet,  and 
pleasant  condition  as  now  it  is."  So  wretched, 
indeed,  was  the  state  of  Moorfields,  in  the  days  of 
Edward  the  Second,  that  travellers  could  only  pass 
over  it  on  causeways.  The  draining  and  improve- 
ment of  this  "  noysome  and  offensive  place  "  was 
commenced  in  1527.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
reign  of  James  the  First  we  find  it  converted  into 
"new  and  pleasant  walks,"  and  as  it  was  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  residences  of 


3io  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

many  of  the  nobility  and  most  wealthy  citizens, 
it  soon  became  the  most  fashionable  promenade  in 
the  northeast  of  London.  As  late  as  the  last  cen- 
tury, the  spot  of  ground  in  front  of  old  Beth- 
lehem Hospital  —  divided  by  gravel  walks,  and 
planted  with  elm-trees  —  was  so  favourite  a  re- 
sort of  the  fashionable  citizens  as. to  obtain  for  it 
the  distinguishing  appellation  of  the  "  City  Mall." 

In  Moorfields  was  dug  another  of  those  frightful 
plague-pits  which  received  the  victims  of  the  giant 
pestilence  in  1665.  Defoe,  speaking  of  these 
numerous  receptacles  of  the  dead,  observes  :  "  Be- 
sides these,  there  was  a  piece  of  ground  in  Moor- 
fields,  by  the  going  into  the  street  which  is  now 
called  Old  Bethlehem,  which  was  enlarged  much, 
though  not  wholly  taken  in  on  the  same  occasion." 

Another  gigantic  burial-place  in  this  vicinity  was 
dug  nearly  on  the  site  of  the  present  Windmill 
Street ;  no  fewer  than  one  thousand  cartloads  of 
human  bones  having  been  removed  hither  when 
the  Duke  of  Somerset  pulled  down  the  charnel- 
house  and  other  buildings  attached  to  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  in  order  to  obtain  materials  for  his  new 
palace  in  the  Strand. 

Bedlam,  or  rather  Bethlehem  Hospital,  dedicated 
to  St.  Mary  of  Bethlehem,  and  formerly  situated 
in  Moorfields,  was  originally  an  hospital  or  priory, 
founded  in  1246  by  Simon  Fitz-Mary,  Sheriff  of 
London,  for  the  reception  and  cure  of  lunatics.  It 
stood  originally  between  the  east  side  of  Moor- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  311 

fields  and  Bishopsgate  Street,  and  consisted  of  a 
prior,  canons,  brethren,  and  sisters,  who  dressed  in 
a  black  habif,  and  were  distinguished  by  a  star  on 
their  breasts.  In  the  churchyard  of  the  hospital 
was  interred  Robert  Greene,  the  celebrated  wit  and 
dramatic  writer  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Accord- 
ing to  Anthony  Wood,  he  died  after  a  short  life  of 
riot  and  dissipation,  of  a  surfeit  brought  on  by  too 
free  an  indulgence  in  pickled  herrings  and  Rhenish 
wine.  Here  also  was  interred  the  stern  republican, 
John  Lilburne,  who  died  in  1657. 

The  old  building  having  fallen  into  a  ruinous 
state,  in  1675  the  Corporation  of  London  granted  a 
plot  of  ground  on  the  south  side  of  Moorfields  for  the 
erection  of  a  larger  and  more  commodious  hospital. 
Large  sums  were  raised  by  public  subscription,  and 
in  1675  the  new  hospital  was  erected,  at  an  expense 
of  ;£  1 7,000.  It  was  built  on  the  plan  of  the  palace 
of  the  Tuileries  at  Paris  ;  a  circumstance  which  so 
deeply  offended  Louis  the  Fourteenth  that  he  is 
said  to  have  ordered  a  plan  to  be  taken  of  St.  James's 
Palace,  with  the  intention  of  making  it  the  model 
of  a  building  to  be  adapted  to  the  vilest  purposes. 

Bethlehem,  in  the  form  in  which  it  stood  at  the 
commencement  of  the  present  century,  presented 
an  imposing  appearance,  being  five  hundred  feet 
long  and  forty  broad.  Not  the  least  striking  ob- 
jects which  distinguished  its  exterior  were  the 
famous  statues  over  the  gates,  of  raving  and 
melancholy  madness,  the  work  of  Caius  Gabriel 


312  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Gibber,  the  father  of  the  comedian  and  poet  lau- 
reate, Colley  Gibber. 

"  Where  o'er  the  gates,  by  his  famed  father's  hand, 
Great  Gibber's  brazen  brainless  brothers  stand."  * 

—  The  Dunciad. 

In  1814  —  partly  on  account  of  its  dilapidated 
state,  and  partly  from  the  site  being  required  for 
some  projected  improvements  in  Moorfields — Beth- 
lehem Hospital  was  taken  down  and  the  establish- 
ment removed  to  St.  George's  Fields,  Lambeth. 

On  the  north  side  of  Moorfields,  opposite  to 
Bethlehem,  stood  formerly  the  hospital  of  St. 
Luke.  Having  been  found  too  small,  however, 
for  the  purposes  'for  which  it  was  intended,  it  was 
taken  down  and  superseded  by  the  present  exten- 
sive building  in  Old  Street  Road,  erected  in  1 784 
at  an  expense  of  ,£55,000. 

Running  out  of  London  Wall,  nearly  opposite  to 
Little  Moorfield,  is  Moorgate  Street,  the  site  of  an 
old  postern  gate  in  the  city  wall,  opened  in  1415, 
by  Thomas  Falconer,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  for 
the  convenience  of  the  citizens.  "  The  lord  mayor," 
says  Stow,  "  caused  the  wall  of  the  city  to  be  broken 

1  These  statues  are  preserved  in  the  vestibule  of  the  present 
hospital  in  St.  George's  Fields.  One  of  them,  it  is  said,  was  in- 
tended to  represent  Oliver  Cromwell's  gigantic  porter,  who  was 
long  confined  in  Bethlehem.  It  may  be  remarked,  that  they  are 
not  brazen,  but  of  Portland  stone.  They  were  painted,  in  order 
to  protect  them  from  the  weather,  and  probably  originally  of  a 
bronze  colour,  for  which  white  has  since  been  substituted. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  313 

near  unto  Coleman  Street,  and  built  a  postern,  now 
called  Moorgate,  upon  the  Moor  side,  where  was 
never  gate  before.  This  gate  he  made  for  the  ease 
of  the  citizens,  that  way  to  pass  upon  causeways 
into  the  fields  for  their  recreation."  Close  to 
Moorgate  was  born,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1693, 
the  well-known  dramatic  writer,  George  Lillo,  the 
author  of  "  George  Barnwell,"  and  of  "  The  Fatal 
Curiosity." 

Almost  adjoining  Finsbury  Square  is  the  new 
Artillery  Ground,  of  which  mention  has  already 
been  made.  Close  by  was  a  most  interesting  spot, 
—  Artillery  Walk,  Bunhill  Fields,  —  containing  the 
house  in  which  Milton  completed  his  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  and  in  which  he  breathed  his  last  in  No- 
vember, 1674.  The  site  is  pointed  out  by  the 
present  Artillery  Place,  Bunhill  Row.  Milton's 
nephew  and  biographer,  Phillips,  informs  us  that 
during  the  time  the  great  poet  lived  in  Artillery 
Walk,  he  used,  in  fine  summer  weather,  to  sit  at 
the  door  of  his  house,  habited  in  a  coarse  gray 
cloth  cloak,  and  in  this  manner  received  the  visits 
of  persons  of  rank  and  genius,  who  came  either  to 
pay  homage  to  him  or  to  enjoy  his  conversation. 
A  Doctor  Wright,  a  clergyman  of  Dorsetshire,  in- 
formed Phillips  that  he  once  paid  a  visit  to  the 
blind  poet  in  Artillery  Walk.  He  found  him  in 
a  small  apartment  on  the  first  floor,  where  he  was 
seated  in  an  elbow-chair,  neatly  dressed  in  a  black 
suit.  His  face  was  pale,  but  not  cadaverous.  He 


314  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

was  suffering  much  from  gout,  and  especially  from 
chalk-stones,  yet  he  told  Doctor  Wright  that,  were  it 
not  for  the  pain  he  endured,  his  blindness  would  be 
tolerable.  It  was  in  this  house  that  he  was  visited 
by  Dryden.  Aubrey  tells  us  :  "  John  Dryden,  Esq., 
poet  laureate,  who  very  much  admired  him,  went 
to  him  to  have  leave  to  put  his  '  Paradise  Lost ' 
into  a  drama  in  rhyme.  Mr.  Milton  received  him 
civilly,  and  told  him  he  would  give  him  leave  to 
tagge  his  verses." 

On  the  west  side  of  the  Artillery  Ground  is 
Bunhill  Row,  forming  a  part  of  the  site  of  the  old 
Bunhill  Fields.  Close  by  stood  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal pest-houses  during  the  raging  of  the  great 
plague.  Here,  too,  was  dug  another  of  those  fright- 
ful plague-pits  of  which  Defoe  has  given  us  so 
harrowing  a  description.  "  I  have  heard,"  he  says, 
"that  in  a  great  pit  in  Finsbury,  in  the  parish  of 
Cripplegate,  —  it  lying  open  to  the  fields,  for  it 
was  not  then  walled  about,  —  many  who  were  in- 
fected and  near  their  end,  and  delirious  also,  ran, 
wrapt  in  blankets  or  rags,  and  threw  themselves  in 
and  expired  there,  before  any  earth  could  be  thrown 
upon  them.  When  they  came  to  bury  others,  and 
found  them,  they  were  quite  dead  though  not  cold." 
The  spot  was  shortly  afterward  walled  in,  and  be- 
came the  principal  burial-place  of  the  dissenters  in 
London.  Anthony  Wood  speaks  of  it  as  the  "  fa- 
natical burying-place,  called  by  some,  Tindals'  bury- 
ing-place."  It  is  now  known  as  the  "  Bunhill  Fields 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  315 

Burial-ground."  Here,  in  1688,  was  interred  John 
Bunyan,  author  of  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  whose 
memory,  according  to  Southey,  was  held  in  such 
high  veneration  that  "  many  are  said  to  have  made 
it  their  desire  to  be  interred  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  spot  where  his  remains  are  deposited."  Here 
also  were  interred  Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin,  the  pop- 
ular Independent  preacher,  who  attended  Oliver 
Cromwell  on  his  death-bed,  and  who  died  in  1 679  ; 
Charles  Fleetwood,  the  celebrated  parliamentary 
general,  and  son-in-law  to  Oliver  Cromwell,  who 
died  in  1692  ;  Dr.  Isaac  Watts,  the  author  of  the 
hymns,  who  died  in  1 749 ;  Joseph  Ritson,  the 
collector  of  our  early  national  poetry,  who  died  in 
a  madhouse  at  Hoxton  in  1803  ;  and  Thomas 
Stothard,  the  royal  academician,  who  died  in  1834. 
Lastly,  let  us  not  omit  to  mention  that  here,  close 
to  the  plague-pit,  the  horrors  of  which  his  pen 
has  so  vividly  described,  lies  buried  Daniel  Defoe, 
the  author  of  "  Robinson  Crusoe."  The  spot  was 
selected  by  him  in  his  lifetime,  being  close  to  the 
grave  of  his  sister,  who  had  died  a  few  years 
previously. 

In  a  neighbouring  burial-ground  belonging  to 
the  society  of  Friends  lie  the  remains  of  their 
celebrated  founder,  George  Fox,  who  died  in  1690. 

In  Old  Street,  "near  London,"  lived  Samuel 
Daniel,  the  poet  and  historian.  His  residence 
consisted  of  a  small  house  and  garden,  where 
he  lived  in  comparative  retirement,  and  where  he 


316  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

composed  most  of  his  dramatic  pieces.  In  this 
street  also,  in  1763,  died  the  celebrated  George 
Psalmanazer. 

Within  a  short  distance  from  Old  Street  stood 
Grub  Street,  now  Milton  Street,  the  supposititious 
residence  of  needy  authors,  and  so  often  the  sub- 
ject of  ridicule  and  satire,  both  in  prose  and  verse, 
as  almost  to  be  rendered  classic  ground.1 

"  A  spot  near  Cripplegate  extends  ; 

Grub  Street  'tis  called,  the  modern  Pindus, 
Where  (but  that  bards  are  never  friends) 

Bards  might  shake  hands  from  adverse  windows." 

—  James  Smith. 

In  this  street  lived  John  Fox,  author  of  the 
"Book  of  Martyrs."  Here  also,  according  to 
Pennant,  lived  and  died  the  "very  remarkable 
Henry  Welby,  Esq.,  of  Lincolnshire,  who  lived 
in  his  house  in  this  street  forty-four  years,  with- 
out ever  being  seen  by  any  human  being."  He 
was  a  man  possessed  of  large  property,  but  his 
brother  having  made  an  attempt  to  kill  him,  it 
produced  such  an  effect  on  his  mind  that  he  deter- 
mined to  seclude  himself  entirely  from  the  world. 
For  nearly  half  a  century  all  that  was  known  of 

1  Grub  Street,  n.  s.,  originally  the  name  of  a  street  near 
Moorfields,  in  London,  much  inhabited  by  writers  of  small 
histories,  dictionaries,  and  temporary  poems,  whence  any  mean 
production  is  called  Grub  Street.  — Johnson's  Dictionary. 

Let  Budgell  charge  low  Grub  Street  with  his  quill.  —  Pope. 

I'd  sooner  ballads  write,  and  Grub  Street  lays.  —  Gay. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  317 

him  were  his  extensive  and  munificent   charities. 
He  died  on  the  29th  of  October,  1636. 

In  Moorfields  was  born  John  Hoole,  the  trans- 
lator of  Tasso  and  Metastasio,  and  in  Grub  Street 
he  received  his  education.  Happening  to  mention 
the  latter  circumstance  when  in  company  with 
Doctor  Johnson,  "  Sir,"  said  Johnson,  "  you  have 
been  regularly  educated."  Johnson  having  inquired 
who  was  his  instructor,  and  Hoole  having  answered, 
"  My  uncle,  sir,  who  was  a  tailor,"  Johnson, 
recollecting  himself,  said,  "  Sir,  I  knew  him ;  we 
called  him  the  metaphysical  tailor ;  he  was  of  a 
club  in  Old  Street,  with  me  and  George  Psalma- 
nazer  and  some  others  ;  but  pray,  sir,  was  he  a  good 
tailor?"  Hoole  having  replied  that  he  believed 
he  was  too  mathematical,  and  used  to  draw  squares 
and  triangles  on  his  shop.-board,  so  that  he  did  not 
excel  in  the  cut  of  a  coat,  "  I  am  sorry  for  it," 
said  Johnson,  "  for  I  would  have  every  man  to  be 
master  of  his  own  business."  Boswell  informs  us 
that  from  this  period  Doctor  Johnson  used  fre- 
quently to  jest  with  Hoole  on  his  literary  connec- 
tion with  Grub  Street.  "  Sir,"  he  used  often  to 
say,  "let  you  and  I  go  together  and  eat  a  beef- 
steak in  Grub  Street." 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

ST.    GILES'S    CRIPPLEGATE,    BARBERS*    HALL, 
FORTUNE    THEATRE. 

Antiquity  of  St.  Giles's  Cripplegate  Church  —  Celebrated  Men 
Buried  There :  Speed,  John  Fox,  Robert  Glover,  Sir  Martin 
Frobisher,  William  Bulleyn,  Milton,  Margaret  Lucy,  Thomas 
Busby  —  Monkwell  Street  —  Barber-Surgeons'  Hall  —  Silver 
Street  —  Sion  College  —  Wood  Street  —  St.  Mary,  Alderman- 
bury  —  Judge  Jeffreys  —  Thomas  Farnaby  —  Jewin  Street  — 
Aldersgate  Street  —  Shaf tesbury,  Petre,  and  Lonsdale  Houses 
—  Milton  —  Barbican  —  Fortune  Theatre. 

LET  us  now  retrace  our  steps  to  London  Wall, 
and  stroll  into  the  interesting  and  venerable 
church  of  St.  Giles's  Cripplegate.  There  are 
few  religious  edifices  in  London  through  which 
the  poet,  the  antiquary,  or  the  historian  may 
wander  with  greater  pleasure  or  quit  with  greater 
regret. 

The  church  of  St.  Giles  "  without  Cripplegate  " 
was  originally  founded  about  the  year  1900,  by 
Alfune,  Bishop  of  London,  and  dedicated  by  him 
to  St.  Egidius,  or  St.  Giles,  a  wealthy  native  saint 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  319 

of  Athens,  whose  tenderness  of  heart  is  said  to 
have  been  so  great,  that,  having  expended  his 
whole  fortune  in  acts  of  charity,  he  gave  the  coat 
on  his  back  to  a  sick  beggar  whom  he  had  no 
other  means  of  relieving.  In  1 545  the  old  church 
was  injured  by  fire,  but  was  shortly  afterward 
repaired  and  partially  rebuilt.  The  name  of 
Cripplegate  was  derived  from  the  neighbouring 
postern,  or  Cripple-gate,  so  called,  according  to 
Stow,  from  the  number  of  cripples  who  were  in 
the  daily  habit  of  assembling  there  for  the  purpose 
of  begging  alms  from  those  who  passed  into  or 
out  of  the  city. 

The  great  interest  possessed  by  St.  Giles's 
Church  is  from  its  historical  associations,  from 
the  many  celebrated  men  who  lie  buried  beneath 
its  roof,  and  lastly,  from  the  very  interesting 
remains  of  the  old  fortified  wall,  which  can  only 
be  seen  by  a  visit  to  its  gloomy  churchyard. 

In  the  south  aisle  is  the  monument  of  the 
celebrated  antiquary,  John  Speed,  who,  as  the 
Latin  inscription  on  it  informs  us,1  died  on 

1  "  Piae  Memoriae  charissimorum  Parentum,  Johannis  Speed, 
Civis  Londinensis,  Mercatorum  Scissorum  Fratris,  Servi  fidelis- 
simi  Regiarum  Majestatum  Elisabeth ae,  Jacobi,  et  Carol!  mine 
superstitis.  Terrarum  nostrarum  Geographi  accurati,  et  fidi 
Antiquitatis,  Britannicae  Historiograph!,  Genealogiae  Sacrae  ele- 
gantissimi  Delineatoris.  Qui  postquam  annos  77  superaverat, 
non  tarn  morbo  confectus,  quam  mortalitatis  taedio  lassatus> 
corpora  se  levavit  Julii  28,  1629,  et  jucundissimo  Redemptoris 
sui  desiderio  sursum  elatus  carnem  hie  in  custodiam  posuit, 
denuo  cum  Christus  venerit,  recepturus,"  etc. 


320  LONDON  AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

the  28th  of  July,  1629,  and  was  buried  within  the 
church.  His  monument,  of  marble,  consists  of  a 
bust,  which  was  once  gilt  and  painted,  represent- 
ing the  old  antiquary  with  his  right  hand  resting 
upon  a  book  and  his  left  upon  a  skull. 

Another  monument  in  the  south  aisle  is  a  mural 
tablet  in  memory  of  Robert  Glover,  the  well- 
known  antiquary  and  herald,  who  died  in  1588. 
The  tablet  contains  a  long  Latin  inscription, 
commemorative  of  his  genius  and  indefatigable 
diligence,  his  blameless  life  and  pious  end. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  north  aisle  is  a  simple 
tablet  to  the  memory  of  John  Fox,  the  author  of 
the  "Book  of  Martyrs,"  who  died  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood in  April,  1587,  and  who  is  believed  to 
have  been  buried  on  the  south  side  of  the  chancel.1 
The  fact  is  well  known  that  after  Fox  was  re- 
duced in  circumstances,  he  lived  for  a  considerable 
time  in  the  house  of  Sir  Thomas  Lucy,  of  Charle- 
cote,  in  Warwickshire,  as  tutor  to  his  sons,  and 
consequently  it  is  not  a  little  interesting  to  find 


1 "  Christo,  S.  S.  Johanni  Foxo,  Ecclesiae  Anglicanae  Martyr- 
ologo  fidelissimo,  Antiquitatis  Historical  Indagatori  sagacissimo, 
Evangelicae  Veritatis  Propugnatori  acerrimo,  Thaumaturgo  ad- 
mirabili;  qui  Martyres  Marianos,  tanquam  Phcenices,  ex  cineri- 
bus  redivivos  praestitit ;  Patri  suo  omni  pietatis  officio  imprimis 
colendo,  Samuel  Foxus,  illius  primogenitus,  hoc  Monumentum 
posuit,  non  sine  lachrymis.  '  Obiit  die  1 8  Mens.  April.  An.  Dom. 
1587,  jam  septuagenarius.  Vita  vitas  mortalis  est,  spes  vitae 
immortalis.' "  The  inscription  is  perfect  only  as  far  as  the  word 
«  hoc  " 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  321 

a  child  and  grandchild  of  Sir  Thomas  buried 
beneath  the  same  roof  as  the  venerable  tutor  of 
the  family,  and  mingling  their  dust  with  his.  Not 
improbably  the  London  residence  of  the  Lucys 
may  have  been  in  this  immediate  neighbourhood. 
Sir  Thomas  Lucy  was  the  same  knight  whose 
park  was  the  scene  of  Shakespeare's  deer-stealing 
frolic,  and  whom  he  has  immortalised  as : 

«'  A  Parliament  man,  a  justice  of  peace, 
At  home  a  poor  scarecrow,  in  London  an  ass." 

Near  the  centre  of  the  north  aisle  is  a  striking- 
looking  monument,  representing  a  female  figure 
in  a  shroud  rising  from  a  coffin.  According  to 
tradition,  it  commemorates  the  story  of  a  lady, 
who,  after  having  been  buried  while  in  a  trance, 
was  not  only  restored  to  life,  but  subsequently 
became  the  mother  of  several  children  ;  her  re- 
suscitation, it  is  said,  having  been  brought  about 
by  the  cupidity  of  a  sexton,  which  induced  him 
to  open  the  coffin  in  order  to  obtain  possession  of  a 
valuable  ring  which  was  on  her  finger.  The  story, 
however,  is  entirely  fabulous.  The  monument  in 
question  is  to  the  memory  of  Constance  Whitney, 
eldest  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Whitney,  and  grand- 
daughter of  Sir  Thomas  Lucy,  who  died  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  ;  excelling,  as  her  epitaph  informs  us, 
"  in  all  noble  qualities  becominge  a  virgin  of  so 
sweet  proportion  of  beauty  and  harmonic  of 
parts." 


322  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

In  the  church  also  lies,  though  without  any 
stone  to  mark  his  resting-place,  that  gallant  knight, 
Sir  Martin  Frobisher,  whose  name  is  so  intimately 
connected  with  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish 
Armada,  and  the  fortunes  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 
It  has  generally  been  supposed  that  after  he  re- 
ceived his  death-wound,  near  Brest,  his  body  was 
conveyed  to  Plymouth  and  interred  at  that  place. 
There  can  be  no  question,  however,  as  to  his 
having  been  buried  in  St.  Giles's  Church,  his 
name  appearing  in  the  register  of  burials,  under 
the  date  i4th  of  January,  1594-5. 

Another  eminent  person  buried  in  this  church, 
but  without  a  monument,  is  William  Bulleyn, 
physician  to  Edward  the  Sixth,  Queen  Mary,  and 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  unquestionably  one  of  the 
most  learned  men  of  his  time.  Doctor  Bulleyn, 
who  was  the  author  of  several  medical  works,  died 
on  the  7th  of  January,  1576. 

But  the  most  illustrious  person  who  lies  buried 
in  St.  Giles's  .Church  is  the  author  of  "  Paradise 
Lost."  "He  lies  buried,"  writes  Aubrey,  "in  St. 
Giles's,  Cripplegate,  upper  end  of  the  chancel,  at 
the  right  hand  :  mem.,  his  stone  is  now  removed  : 
about  two  years  since  the  two  steps  to  the  com- 
munion-table were  raised.  Speed  and  he  lie 
together."  In  the  parish  register,  among  the 
entry  of  burials  on  the  I2th  of  November,  1674, 
are  the  words :  "  John  Milton,  gentleman,  con- 
sumption, chancel."  In  1790,  the  grave  of  the- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  323 

poet  was  opened  and  his  remains  said  to  have 
been  desecrated,  which  provoked  some  indignant 
verses  from  Cowper. 

"  111  fare  the  hands  that  heaved  the  stones 

Where  Milton's  ashes  lay, 
That  trembled  not  to  grasp  his  bones, 
And  steal  his  dust  away ! 

"  O,  ill-requited  bard !  neglect 

Thy  living  worth  repaid, 
And  blind  idolatrous  respect 
As  much  affronts  thee  dead  !  " 

The  story  is,  however,  apocryphal.  For  nearly 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  the  grave  of  the 
immortal  poet  remained  without  a  memorial  of  his 
resting-place,  till,  in  1793,  Mr.  Whitbread  erected 
a  bust  with  an  inscription  near  the  spot  where  he 
was  buried.  The  bust,  now  standing  at  the  east 
end  of  the  south  aisle,  on  a  monument  erected  by 
subscription  in  1862,  is  by  the  elder  Bacon,  and 
the  inscription  is  as  follows : 

"  JOHN  MILTON, 

Author  of  Paradise  Lost, 

Born  Dec.  1608, 

Died  Nov.  1674. 


His  father,  John  Milton,  died  March,  1646. 
They  were  both  interred  in  this  church. 


Samuel  Whitbread  posuit,  1 793." 


324  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

To  two  other  monuments  only  in  this  church 
does  it  seem  necessary  to  call  attention  ;  the  one 
for  the  sake  of  its  touching  simplicity,  and  the 
other  on  account  of  its  quaintness.  The  former, 
a  small  tablet  of  white  marble  within  the  rails  of 
the  communion-table,  bears  on  it  the  following 
simple  but  touching  inscription  : 

"  Here  lies  Margarett  Lucy,  the  second  daughter  of  Sir 
Thomas  Lucy,  of  Charlcott  in  the  county  of  Warwicke, 
Knight  (the  third  by  imediate  discent  of  the  name  of 
Thomas)  by  Alice,  sole  daughter  and  heire  of  Thomas 
Spenser  of  Clarenden,  in  the  same  county,  Esq.,  and  Gustos 
Brevium  of  the  Courte  of  Comon  Pleas  at  Westminster, 
who  departed  this  life  the  i8th  day  of  November,  1634, 
and  aboute  the  ipth  year  of  her  age.  For  discretion  and 
sweetnesse  of  conversation,  not  many  excelled ;  and  for 
pietie  and  patience  in  her  sicknesse  and  death,  few  equalled 
her ;  which  is  the  comforte  of  her  nearest  friendes,  to  every 
of  whom  shee  was  very  dear,  but  especiallie  to  her  old 
Grandmother  the  Lady  Constance  Lucy,  under  whose  gov- 
ernment shee  died,  who,  having  long  exspected  every  day 
to  have  gone  before  her,  doth  now  trust,  by  faith  and  hope 
in  the  precious  Bloode  of  Christ  Jesus,  shortly  to  follow  after 
and  be  partaker,  together  with  her  and  others,  of  the  un- 
speakeable  and  eternall  joyes  in  His  blessed  Kingdome; 
to  whom  be  all  honour,  laude,  and  praise,  now  and  ever, 
Amen." 

The  other  monument  referred  to  is  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Thomas  Busby,  "  Citizen  and  Cooper,"  who 
died  on  the  nth  of  July,  1575.  The  figure  of  the 
deceased  is  represented  holding  in  one  hand  a  skull 


LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  325 

and  in  the  other  a  pair  of  gloves,  while  beneath 
is  the  following  inscription : 

"  This  Busbie,  willing  to  reeleve  the  poore  with  fire  and 

with  breade, 
Did  give  that  howse  whearein  he  dyed,  then  called  the 

Queenes  Heade. 

"  Foure  full  loades  of  the  best  charcoales  he  would  have 

bought  ech  yeare ; 
And  fortie  dosen  of  wheaten  bread  for  poor  howsholders 

heare. 

"To  see   these   thinges   distributed,   this   Busbie  put  in 

trust 
The  Vicar    and   Churchwardenes,   thinking    them  to    be 

just. 

"  God  grant  that  poor  howsholders  here  may  thankful  be 

for  such ; 
So  God  will  move  the  mindes  of  moe  to  doe  for  them  as 

much. 

"And  let  this  good  example  move  such  men  as  God  hath 

blessed, 
To  doe  the  like,  before  they  goe  with  Busbie  to  there  rest. 

"  Within  this  chappell  Busbies  bones  in  dust  awhile  must 

stay; 
Till  He  that  made  them  rayse  them  up  to  live  with  Christ 

for  aye." 

It  was  at  the  altar  of  St.  Giles's  Church  that 
Oliver  Cromwell  was  married,  on  the  2Oth  of 
August,  1620,  to  Elizabeth  Bowchier,  who  became 
the  mother  of  his  numerous  children,  and  the 
sharer  of  his  greatness. 


326  LONDON  AND  ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

The  ground  which  surrounds  St.  Giles's  is 
scarcely  less  classical  and  interesting  than  the 
old  church  itself.  Immediately  adjoining  it  is 
Monkwell  Street,  deriving  its  name  partly  from 
a  well  which  anciently  existed  on  its  site,  and 
partly  from  the  small  hermitage  or  chapel  of 
"  St.  James  in  the  Wall,"  inhabited  by  a  hermit 
and  two  monks  belonging  to  the  Cistercian  Abbey 
of  Garadon.  In  this  street  stands  what  is  left 
of  Barber-Surgeons'  Hall ;  an  institution  vividly 
reminding  us  of  old  customs  and  old  times,  when 
the  art  of  surgery  and  of  shaving  went  hand  in 
hand  in  England.  Over  the  entrance  may  be 
seen  the  arms  of  the  company,  in  which  three 
razors  form  not  the  least  conspicuous  objects  in 
the  shield. 

The  united  Company  of  Barbers  and  Surgeons 
were  first  incorporated  by  Edward  the  Fourth  in 
1461-62,  at  which  time,  if  we  may  judge  from  their 
petitioning  to  be  distinguished  by  the  style  and 
title  of  the  "Mystery  of  Barbers,"  the  barbers 
would  seem  to  have  had  the  precedency.  The 
leading  barber-surgeons  through  whose  imme- 
diate influence  the  charter  was  obtained  from  the 
king,  were  Thomas  Monestede,  Sheriff  of  Lon- 
don in  1436,  and  chirurgeon  to  Kings  Henry  the 
Fourth,  Fifth,  and  Sixth ;  Jaques  Fries,  physician 
to  Edward  the  Fourth ;  and  William  Hobbs, 
"  physician  and  chirurgeon  for  the  same  king's 
body." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  327 

It  is  not  till  the  fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Eighth  that  we  find  the  barbers  and  surgeons 
recognised  as  separate  mysteries  or  crafts.  And 
even  then  the  separation  did  not  last  long.  In 
1541  the  two  companies  were  again  incorporated 
in  one  company,  by  the  name  of  "  the  Masters  or 
Governors  of  the  Mystery  or  Commonalty  of  Bar- 
bers and  Chirurgeons  of  the  City  of  London,"  and 
a  few  years  afterward  were  again  separated.  It 
was  not,  however,  till  the  year  1745  that  the  two 
crafts  were  formally  and  finally  disjoined  by  act  of 
Parliament,  when  the  barbers,  as  the  more  ancient 
body  of  the  two,  were  allowed  to  retain  possession 
of  the  'old  hall  in  Monkwell  Street. 

Barber-Surgeons'  Hall  —  or  rather  such  part 
of  it  as  escaped  the  great  fire  of  London  —  was 
built  by  Inigo  Jones  in  1636,  on  the  site  of  a  more 
ancient  building  belonging  to  the  company.  For- 
merly, the  most  beautiful  part  of  Inigo  Jones's 
structure  was  the  Theatre  of  Anatomy,  which  Wai- 
pole  speaks  of  as  one  of  "his  best  works,"  but 
which  was  pulled  down  by  the  barbers  on  their 
separation  from  the  surgeons,  and  sold  for  the 
value  of  its  materials.  A  small  courtyard  led 
at  once  into  the  hall  of  the  company,  an  apart- 
ment simple  in  its  style  of  architecture  and  well- 
proportioned,  but  which  was  rendered  somewhat 
cheerless  from  the  gloomy-looking  pictures  on 
anatomical  subjects  which  were  suspended  on  its 
walls.  The  most  curious  feature  in  the  hall  was 


328  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  semicircular  shape  of  the  upper  or  west  end ; 
this  part,  in  fact,  consisting  of  the  interior  of  a 
bastion  of  the  old  Roman  wall,  which  the  architect 
had  ingeniously  contrived  to  incorporate  with  the 
building.  The  hall,  however,  has  disappeared 
within  a  few  years,  and  its  site  is  now  occupied  by 
lofty  warehouses.  Notwithstanding  this,  there  is 
much  that  is  interesting  in  the  present  building. 
In  the  possession  of  the  Barbers'  Company  are 
preserved  some  very  curious  and  ancient  articles 
of  plate  which  have  at  different  periods  been  pre- 
sented to  them.  Among  these  is  a  cup,  silver-gilt, 
ornamented  with  small  pendent  bells,  presented  by 
Henry  the  Eighth  ;  also  a  cup,  with  acorns  pen- 
dent from  it,  given  by  Charles  the  Second,  who 
himself  was  no  mean  proficient  in  anatomy ;  and 
a  large  bowl,  the  gift  of  Queen  Anne.  In  the 
reign  of  James  the  First  the  company,  it  appears, 
very  nearly  lost  the  whole  of  their  plate  through  a 
successful  robbery.  The  thieves  were  four  men, 
of  the  names  of  Jones,  Lyne,  Sames,  and  Foster, 
of  whom  the  former  confessed  his  guilt,  when,  in 
consequence  of  information  which  he  gave,  the 
plate  was  recovered.  In  the  books  of  the  com- 
pany, for  November,  1616,  is  the  following  matter- 
of-fact  entry  recording  the  fate  of  the  culprits : 
"Thomas  Jones  was  taken,  who,  being  brought  to 
Newgate  in  December  following,  Jones  and  Lyne 
were  both  executed  for  this  fact.  In  January  fol- 
lowing, Sames  was  taken  and  executed.  In  April, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  329 

Foster  was  taken  and  executed.  Now  let's  pray 
God  to  bless  this  house  from  any  more  of  these 
damages.  Amen." 

The  following  extract  from  the  company's 
papers,  under  the  date  of  the  I3th  of  July,  1587, 
is  still  more  curious  :  "  It  is  agreed  that  if  any- 
body, which  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  happen  to 
be  brought  to  our  hall  for  the  intent  to  be  wrought 
upon  by  the  anatomists  of  the  company,  shall  re- 
vive or  come  to  life  again,  as  of  late  hath  been 
seen,  the  charges  about  the  same  body  so  reviving 
shall  be  borne,  levied,  and  sustained  by  such  per- 
son, or  persons,  who  shall  so  happen  to  bring 
home  the  body ;  and  who  further  shall  abide  such 
order  or  fine  as  this  house  shall  award."  The  last 
instance,  it  would  appear,  of  resuscitation  in  a  dis- 
secting-room occurred  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century.  The  case  —  related  by  the  late  celebrated 
anatomist,  John  Hunter  —  was  that  of  a  criminal, 
whose  body  had  been  cut  down  after  execution  at 
Newgate.  The  operators,  it  is  said,  having  suc- 
ceeded in  restoring  him  to  the  full  powers  of 
animation,  immediately  sent  a  communication  to 
the  sheriffs,  who  caused  him  to  be  reconveyed  to 
Newgate,  whence  he  was  afterward  removed  to  a 
foreign  country.  After  his  resuscitation,  however, 
he  painted  a  folding  screen  for  the  company  which 
is  still  preserved  in  the  court-room; 

Before  taking  leave  of  Barbers'  Hall,  we  must 
on  no  account  omit  to  mention  its  most  interest- 


33°  LONDON  AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

ing  feature,  the  beautiful  little  court-room,  with 
its  richly  decorated  ceiling  and  its  graceful  octag- 
onal lantern,  the  work  of  Inigo  Jones.  Here, 
among  the  portraits  of  several  eminent  persons, 
is  to  be  seen  Holbein's  famous  picture  —  the 
greatest  work  painted  by  that  illustrious  artist  in 
England  —  representing  Henry  the  Eighth  grant- 
ing the  charter  of  1541  to  the  incorporated  society 
of  Barber-Surgeons.  In  the  centre  of  this  fine 
picture  Henry  is  represented  as  seated  on  his 
throne,  gorgeously  arrayed  in  brocade,  ermine, 
and  jewels,  while  on  each  side  of  him  are  kneeling 
the  members  of  the  company,  —  eighteen  in  num- 
ber, —  one  of  whom,  Thomas  Vycary,  the  master, 
is  in  the  act  of  receiving  the  charter  from  the 
king's  hands.  Each  figure  is  a  portrait  from  the 
life ;  the  most  eminent  persons  being  John  Cham- 
bre,  physician  to  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Dean  of 
the  Chapel  Royal,  Westminster ;  Thomas  Vycary, 
the  king's  sergeant-surgeon  ;  Doctor  Butts,  immor- 
talised in  Shakespeare's  play  of  "Henry  the 
Eighth,"  and  Sir  John  Ayliffe,  Sheriff  of  London, 
whose  story  is  quaintly  told  in  rhyme  on  his  tomb 
in  St.  Michael's  Church,  Basinghall  Street : 

"  In  surgery  brought  up  in  youth, 

A  Knight  here  lieth  dead ; 
A  Knight,  and  eke  a  Surgeon,  such 
As  England  seld  hath  bred. 

"  For  which  so  sovereign  gift  of  God, 
Wherein  he  did  excel, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  331 

King  Henry  8.  called  him  to  Court, 
Who  loved  him  dearly  well. 

"  King  Edward,  for  his  service  sake, 

Bade  him  rise  up  a  Knight; 

A  man  of  praise,  and  ever  since 

He  Sir  John  Ayliffe  hight." 

The  estimation  in  which  Holbein's  great  work 
was  held  by  our  ancestors  may  be  judged  of  by 
the  following  letter  addressed  by  James  the  First 
to  the  corporation  of  Barber-Surgeons  : 

"  JAMES  R. :  —  Trusty  and  well-beloved,  we 
greet  you  well.  Whereas  we  are  informed  of  a 
table  of  painting  in  your  hall,  wherein  is  the  pic- 
ture of  our  predecessor  of  famous  memory,  King 
Henry  the  Eighth,  together  with  divers  of  your 
company,  which  being  very  like  him,  and  well 
done,  we  are  desirous  to  have  copied ;  whereof 
our  pleasure  is  that  you  presently  deliver  it  unto 
this  bearer,  our  well-beloved  servant,  Sir  Lionel 
Cranfield,  Knight,  one  of  our  masters  of  requests, 
whom  we  have  commanded  to  receive  it  of  you, 
and  see  it  with  all  expedition  copied  and  redeliv- 
ered  safely ;  and  so  we  bid  you  farewell. 

"Given  at  our  Court  at  Newmarket,  the  i3th 
day  of  January,  1617."  ' 

1  Respecting  this  picture  Pepys  has  the  following  curious 
notice  in  his  "  Diary,"  under  the  date  28th  of  August,  1668 : 
"  At  noon  comes  by  appointment  Harris  to  dine  with  me :  and 
after  dinner  he  and  I  to  Chyrurgeons"  Hall,  where  they  are 
building  it  new,  —  very  fine  ;  and  there  to  see  their  theatre, 


33 2  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Holbein's  original  study  or  cartoon,  containing 
sketches  of  the  different  portraits  made  by  the 
great  artist  from  the  life,  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons. 

Among  other  portraits  preserved  in  the  court- 
room, the  most  remarkable  are  a  portrait  of  Inigo 
Jones  by  Vandyke,  and  another  of  Frances, 
Duchess  of  Richmond,  "  la  belle  Stuart "  of  De 
Grammont,  by  Sir  Peter  Lely.  There  are  also 
portraits  of  Charles  the  Second  ;  of  C.  Barnard, 
sergeant-surgeon  to  Queen  Anne,  and  of  the 
celebrated  Sir  Charles  Scarborough,  physician  to 
Charles  the  Second,  who  lectured  here  during 
nearly  seventeen  years.  He  it  was  who  observed 
to  the  beautiful  Duchess  of  Portsmouth,  when  she 
consulted  him  after  having  indulged  for  some  time 
rather  too  freely  in  the  luxuries  of  the  table, 
"  Madam,  I  will  deal  frankly  with  you  ;  you  must 
eat  less,  use  more  exercise,  take  physic,  or  be  sick." 

At  the  south  end  of  Monkwell  Street  is  Silver 
Street.  Here,  from  the  days  of  Richard  the  Sec- 
ond, extending  to  those  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  stood 
"  The  Neville's  Inn,"  the  residence  of  the  Nevilles, 
Earls  of  Westmoreland.  In  1603  we  find  it  the 
residence  of  Henry,  Lord  Windsor,  from  whom  it 

which  stood  all  the  fire,  and  (which  was  our  business)  their 
great  picture  of  Holbein's,  thinking  to  have  bought  it,  by  the 
help  of  Mr.  Pierce,  for  a  little  money.  I  did  think  to  give  ^200 
for  it,  it  being  said  to  be  worth  .£1,000;  but  it  is  so  spoiled  that 
I  have  no  mind  to  it,  and  it  is  not  a  pleasant,  though  a  good 
picture." 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  333 

obtained  the  denomination  of  Windsor  House. 
A  court  in  Monkwell  Street  still  retains  the  name 
of  Windsor  Court. 

To  the  northeast  of  Barbers'  Hall  is  Sion  Col- 
lege, originally  founded  as  a  hospital  in  1329,  on 
the  site  of  a  decayed  nunnery,  by  William  Elsing, 
mercer,  for  the  support  of  a  hundred  blind  men. 
Elsing  subsequently  converted  it  into  a  priory, 
consisting  of  four  canons  regular  to  superintend 
the  blind,  he  himself  being  the  first  prior.  By  the 
will  of  Dr.  Thomas  White,  vicar  of  St.  Dunstan's 
in  the  West,  a  purchase  of  the  ground  was  effected, 
and  in  1623  a  college,  governed  by  a  president, 
two  deans,  and  four  assistants,  was  erected  on  the 
site.  Sion  College,  which  includes  a  fine  library, 
is  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  London  clergy, 
who  have  under  their  charge  almshouses  for  ten 
poor  men  and  as  many  poor  women. 

Running  parallel  with  Monkwell  Street  is  Wood 
Street,  in  which  the  only  objects  of  interest  are 
the  two  churches  dedicated  to  St.  Michael  and 
St.  Alban. 

St.  Michael's,  on  the  west  side  of  Wood  Street, 
must  be  a  foundation  of  considerable  antiquity,  in- 
asmuch as  we  find  John  de  Eppewell  mentioned 
as  a  rector  of  it  so  early  as  the  year  1328.  The 
old  church  having  been  destroyed  by  the  great 
fire  of  1666,  in  1675  tne  present  edifice  was  com- 
pleted after  designs  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  In 
this  church  is  said  to  have  been  flung,  "among 


334  LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

plebeian  skulls,"  the  head  of  the  unfortunate 
James  the  Fourth  of  Scotland,  who  perished  on 
Flodden  Field.  "  His  body,"  writes  Pennant, 
"  for  a  long  time  had  remained  embalmed  at  the 
monastery  at  Shene.  After  the  Dissolution,  it 
was  cast  among  some  rubbish,  where  some  work- 
men wantonly  cut  off  the  head,  which  was  taken 
by  Young,  glazier  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  was 
struck  with  its  sweetness,  arising  from  the  em- 
balming materials.  He  kept  it  for  some  time  at 
his  house  in  Wood  Street,  but  at  last  gave  it  to 
the  sexton  to  bury  among  other  bones  in  the 
charnel-house." 

St.  Alban's,  Wood  Street,  one  of  the  most 
ancient  religious  foundations  in  London,  is  said 
to  have  been  founded  by  King  Athelstan,  about 
the  year  924,  at  which  time  it  was  dedicated  by 
him  to  St.  Alban,  the  first  martyr  in  England, 
whose  bones,  according  to  Weever  and  Fuller, 
having  been  interred  at  St.  Alban's,  were  the 
occasion  of  that  town  being  called  by  his  name. 
That  King  Athelstan  was  the  founder  of  St. 
Alban's  Church  is  rendered  probable  from  the 
fact  of  the  Saxon  monarch  having  had  a  palace  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Wood  Street,  from  which 
circumstance  it  has  been  conjectured  that  Adel 
Street,  or  King  Adel  Street,  long  since  corrupted 
into  Addle  Street,1  derived  its  name.  Stow,  how- 

1  In  Addle  Street  are  the  respective  halls  of  the  Brewers'  and 
Plasterers'  Companies. 


LONDON  AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES.  335 

ever,  admits  that  he  was  unable  to  fix  the  origin 
of  the  name. 

In  1632,  the  old  church  of  St.  Alban's,  Wood 
Street,  in  consequence  of  its  dilapidated  state,  was 
taken  down  and  another  edifice  built  on  its  site, 
after  a  design  by  Inigo  Jones.  This  church  hav- 
ing been  destroyed  by  the  great  fire,  the  present 
uninteresting  building  was  shortly  afterward  com- 
menced by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  and  completed 
in  1685. 

St.  Alban's  Church,  as  far  as  we  are  aware, 
contains  the  remains  of  no  very  remarkable  per- 
sons. Stow,  indeed,  has  supplied  us  with  a  long 
list  of  monuments,  the  whole  of  which  were  prob- 
ably destroyed  by  the  great  fire ;  but  in  vain  do 
we  search  for  a  name  to  which  any  interest  is 
attached.  One  inscription,  however,  deserves  to 
be  transcribed  for  its  quaintness  : 

"  Hie  jacet  Tom  Shorthose, 

Sine  tomb,  sine  sheets,  sine  riches; 
Qui  vixit  sine  gown, 

Sine  cloak,  sine  shirt,  sine  breeches." 

In  glancing  around  St.  Alban's  Church  may  be 
observed,  in  a  curious  brass  frame,  attached  to  the 
pulpit,  one  of  those  quaint-looking  hour-glasses 
which  were  formerly  used  to  remind  the  preacher 
"  how  the  hour  passeth  away,"  and  the  amount  of 
time  which  he  had  to  spare  for  the  edification  of 
his  hearers.  The  hour-glass  in  question  curiously 


336  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

illustrates  the  following  entries  in  an  old  church- 
warden's book,  belonging  to  St.  Catherine  Cree, 
Leadenhall  Street.  The  date  of  the  first  entry 
is  1564:  "Paid  for  an  hour-glass  that  hangeth 
by  the  pulpit,  when  the  preacher  doth  make  a 
sermon,  that  he  may  know  how  the  hour  passeth 
away  —  one  shilling;"  and  again,  among  the  be- 
quests in  1616,  "an  hour-glass,  with  a  frame  to 
stand  in." 

Running  parallel  with  Wood  Street  is  Alder- 
manbury,  so  called  from  the  court  of  aldermen 
having  held  here  their  "  berry,"  or  court,  of  which 
the  ruins  were  still  visible  in  the  time  of  Stow. 
Here  is  the  church  of  St.  Mary,  Aldermanbury, 
erected  by  Wren,  in  1677,  after  the  destruction  of 
the  old  church  by  the  fire  of  London.  The  spot 
awakens  many  interesting  associations.  Here,  on 
the  1 2th  of  November,  1656,  Milton  was  married 
to  his  second  wife,  Catherine  Woodcock,  who  died 
the  same  year ;  hence  the  celebrated  nonconform- 
ist divine,  Edmund  Calamy,  was  ejected  in  1662, 
after  having  held  the  living  for  twenty-three  years, 
and  here  he  lies  buried ;  here  also  were  interred 
Heminge  and  Condell,  the  fellow  actors  of  Shake- 
speare, and  the  first  editors  of  his  immortal  plays ; 
and  in  a  vault  on  the  north  side  of  the  communion- 
table rest  the  remains  of  the  infamous  Judge  Jef- 
freys, whose  body  was  removed  hither  from  the 
chapel  in  the  Tower,  in  1698.  Lord  Campbell 
informs  us  that  when  the  church  was  repaired,  in 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  337 

1810,  the  coffin  was  found  still  fresh,  with  the 
once  dreaded  words,  "  Lord  Chancellor  Jeffreys," 
engraved  on  the  lid. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  London  Wall  are  White- 
cross  Street  and  Redcross  Street,  two  ancient 
streets,  which  derive  their  names,  the  one  from 
a  white,  and  the  other  from  a  red  cross,  which 
severally  stood  on  the  site  of  each.  In  the  latter 
street  was  the  London  residence  of  the  mitred 
Abbots  of  Ramsey,  which  afterward,  falling  into 
the  hands  of  Sir  Drue  Drury,  obtained  the  name 
of  Drury  House.  In  Goldsmith's  Rents,  behind 
Redcross  Street,  "  where  were  large  gardens  and 
handsome  houses,"  lived  the  famous  scholar  and 
schoolmaster,  Thomas  Farnaby.  The  son  of  a 
carpenter  in  London,  he  commenced  life  by  con- 
necting his  fortunes  with  those  of  a  Jesuit,  whom 
he  accompanied  to  Spain,  but  disliking  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Order  of  Jesus,  he  returned  to 
England,  shortly  after  which  he  sailed  with  Sir 
Francis  Drake  on  the  last  voyage  which  he  made 
to  the  West  Indies.  His  next  occupation  was  as 
a  common  soldier,  in  which  capacity  he  served  for 
some  time  in  the  Netherlands,  but  returning  to 
England  in  great  distress,  he  contrived  to  estab- 
lish a  school  at  Martock,  in  Somersetshire,  under 
the  name  of  Bainrafe,  the  anagram  of  Farnabie. 
From  this  place  he  subsequently  removed  to  Lon- 
don, where  the  reputation  of  his  school  increased 
so  rapidly  that  it  speedily  numbered  three  hundred 


338  LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

scholars.  He  was  a  staunch  royalist,  and  during 
the  time  that  the  Parliament  was  in  the  ascend- 
ant, an  unguarded  speech  which  he  made,  that 
"one  king  was  better  than  five  hundred,"  led 
to  his  committal  to  prison.  It  was  proposed  to 
transport  him  to  the  Plantations,  but  owing  to 
powerful  interest  and  the  exertions  of  his  friends, 
he  escaped  with  an  imprisonment  in  Ely  House, 
Holborn.  He  regained  his  liberty  in  1646,  but 
enjoyed  it  only  a  short  time,  his  death  taking 
place  on  the  1 2th  of  June  in  the  following  year. 

Wood  Street  and  Whitecross  Street  are  said  to 
have  been  the  last  streets  in  London  in  which  the 
houses  were  distinguished  by  signs.  They  were 
removed  about  the  year  1773. 

•Redcross  Street  leads  us  into  Jewin  Street,  long 
the  site  of  a  burying-place  of  the  Jews,  from  which 
circumstance  it  took  the  name  of  Jewyn,  or  Jews' 
Garden,  —  "  Gardinum  vocatum.  Jewyn  Garden" 
The  fact  is  rather  a  remarkable  one  that  it  con- 
tinued the  only  place  in  England  in  which  the 
Jews  were  permitted  to  bury  their  dead  till  the 
year  1177,  when,  "after  a  long  suit  to  the  king 
and  Parliament  at  Oxford,"  special  burial-places 
were  assigned  them  in  the  different  quarters  which 
they  inhabited.  "  This  plot  of  ground,"  writes 
Stow,  "  remained  to  the  said  Jews  till  the  time  of 
their  final  banishment  out  of  England,  and  is  now 
turned  into  fair  garden-plots  and  summer-houses 
for  pleasure. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  339 

In  one  of  these  "  summer-houses  ior  pleasure, 
in  Jewin  Street,  lived  at  one  time  John  Milton. 
Here  he  took  up  his  abode  shortly  after  the 
Restoration,  and  here  he  continued  to  reside  till 
the  breaking  out  of  the  great  plague,  when  he 
retired  to  Chalfont,  in  Buckinghamshire.  In  Jewin 
Street,  he  married  his  third  wife,  Elizabeth  Min- 
shull,  and  here  he  is  said  to  have  written  a  great 
part  of  his  immortal  poem,  "Paradise  Lost."  In 
the  Silver  Street  Sunday  schools  in  Jewin  Street  is 
preserved  John  Bunyan's  pulpit. 

From  Jewin  Street  let  us  pass  into  Aldersgate 
Street,  which  derives  its  name  from  one  of  the 
gates  of  the  city,  so  called,  according  to  Stow, 
from  its  antiquity  ;  it  having  been  one  of  the  older, 
or  original  gates.  The  old  gate  was  taken  down 
and  rebuilt  in  1617.  The  new  gate  was  consider- 
ably injured  by  the  great  fire,  but  having  been 
repaired  and  beautified,  remained  standing  till  the 
year  1761,  when  it  was  demolished,  and  its  mate- 
rial sold.  At  the  Restoration  of  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond many  of  the  heads  of  the  regicides  were 
exposed  on  this  gate. 

Aldersgate  Street,  in  the  days  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, contained  a  greater  number  of  the  houses 
of  the  old  nobility  than  perhaps  any  other  street 
in  the  metropolis.  Here,  on  the  west  side,  stood 
another  of  the  London  residences  of  the  Nevilles, 
Earls  of  Westmoreland,  and  close  by,  where  Bull- 
and-Mouth  Street  now  stands,  was  the  mansion  of 


340  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  Percies,  Earls  of  Northumberland.  Westmore- 
land Buildings  still  point  out  the  site  of  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Nevilles.  Here,  too,  breathed  her 
last,  in  1621,  "at  her  house  in  Aldersgate  Street," 
Mary,  Countess  of  Pembroke : 

"  Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother." 

On  the  east  side  of  Aldersgate  Street,  No.  35  to 
38,  still  stands  Shaftesbury  House,  built  by  Inigo 
Jones.  It  was  originally  the  residence  of  the 
Tuftons,  Earls  of  Thanet,  from  whom  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  first  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  the 
turbulent  statesman  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
Second,  and  the  "  Achitophel  "  of  Dryden's  poem  : 

"  For  close  designs,  and  crooked  counsels  fit ; 
Sagacious,  bold,  and  turbulent  of  wit ; 
Restless,  unfixed  in  principles  and  place, 
In  power  unpleased,  impatient  of  disgrace ; 
A  fiery  soul,  which,  working  out  its  way, 
Fretted  the  pigmy-body  to  decay, 
And  o'er-informed  the  tenement  of  clay. 
A  daring  pilot  in  extremity, 

Pleased  with  the  danger  when  the  waves  went  high, 
He  sought  the  storms ;  but,  for  a  calm  unfit, 
Would  steer  too  nigh  the  sands  to  boast  his  wit." 

It  was  at  his  house  in  Aldersgate  Street,  after 
Lord  Shaftesbury' s  final  dismissal  from  office,  that 
he  took  up  his  abode  for  the  purpose  of  fomenting 
discontent  among  the  citizens  of  London,  with 
whom  he  was  at  one  time  so  popular  that  it  was 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  34* 

his  boast  that  he  could  raise  a  body  of  ten  thou- 
sand men  by  merely  holding  up  his  finger.  Charles 
the  Second  once  playfully  observed  to  him  :  "  My 
lord,  I  believe  you  are  the  wickedest  man  in  my 
dominions."  "  For  a  subject,  Sir,"  was  the  earl's 
witty  reply,  "  I  believe  I  am." 

Almost  opposite  to  Shaftesbury  House  stood 
Petre  House,  successively  the  residence  of  the 
Petre  family  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  of 
Henry  Pierrepoint,  Marquis  of  Dorchester,  in  the 
days  of  the  Commonwealth  ;  and  subsequently  the 
episcopal  residence  of  the  Bishops  of  London  after 
the  destruction  of  their  palace  in  St.  Paul's  Church- 
yard by  the  great  fire.  During  the  Commonwealth 
Petre  House  was  for  some  time  used  as  a  prison, 
one  of  its  inmates  at  this  time  having  been  the 
eminent  engraver,  William  Faithorne,  who  was 
confined  here  after  he  had  been  made  a  prisoner 
by  the  Parliamentary  forces  at  the  surrender  of 
Basing  House.  In  1688,  when  the  Princess  Anne, 
afterward  Queen  Anne,  fled  at  night  from  her 
father's  palace  at  Whitehall,  and  placed  herself 
under  the  protection  of  Bishop  Compton,  it  was  to 
his  house  in  Aldersgate  Street  that  the  bishop 
carried  her  in  a  hackney-coach,  and  here  she  passed 
the  night. 

On  the  east  side,  at  the  north  end  of  Aldersgate 
Street,  stood  Lauderdale  House,  the  residence  of 
John,  Duke  of  Lauderdale,  who  died  in  1682.  The 
site  is  still  pointed  out  by  Lauderdale  Buildings. 


342  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  remark  that  this  nobleman 
and  his  unprincipled  friend,  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
formed  two  of  the  famous  Cabal  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second. 

In  Aldersgate  Street  was  another  of  the  numer- 
ous London  residences  of  the  author  of  "  Paradise 
Lost."  Hither  it  was,  to  "a  handsome  garden- 
house,"  that  he  removed  from  St.  Bride's  Church- 
yard in  1643,  and  it  was  during  his  residence 
here  that  he  was  reconciled  to  his  first  wife, 
Mary  Powell.  As  a  first  step  toward  their  reco- 
habitation,  he  placed  her  in  the  house  of  one 
Widow  Weber,  in  St.  Clement's  Churchyard, 
whence,  after  a  short  interval,  he  took  her  back  to 
his  heart  and  hearth.  In  his  beautiful  description 
of  Adam's  reconciliation  with  Eve  after  their  fall, 
Milton  had  evidently  in  his  mind  his  own  first 
interview  with  his  repentant  wife  after  her  un- 
happy estrangement : 

"  She,  not  repulsed,  with  tears  that  ceased  not  flowing, 
And  tresses  all  disordered,  at  his  feet 
Fell  humble,  and  embracing  them,  besought 
His  peace." 

And  again : 

"  Soon  his  heart  relented 
Towards  her,  his  life  so  late,  and  sole  delight, 
Now  at  his  feet  submissive  in  distress." 

Milton's  reconciliation  with  his  wife  took  place 
in  July,  1645,  in  which  year  he  removed  from 
Aldersgate  Street  to  a  larger  house  in  Barbican. 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  343 

Here  he  remained  till  1647,  when  he  took  a 
smaller  house  in  High  Holborn,  overlooking  Lin- 
coln's Inn  Fields. 

In  Aldersgate  Street  was  born,  in  1633,  Thomas 
Flatman,  the  lawyer,  painter,  and  poet. 

Aldersgate  Street  leads  us  into  Barbican,  a  street 
deriving  its  name  from  the  Barbican,  or  burgh- 
kenning,  a  watch-tower  which  was  anciently  an 
appendage  of  every  fortified  place.  The  remains 
of  the  tower,  which  stood-  a  little  to  the  north  of 
this  thoroughfare,  on  the  site  of  the  old  Roman 
specula,  were  visible  in  the  latter  half  of  the  last 
century.  "Here,"  writes  Bagford,  "the  Romans 
kept  cohorts  of  soldiers  in  continual  service  to 
watch  in  the  night,  that  if  any  sudden  fire  should 
happen,  they  might  be  in  readiness  to  extinguish 
it ;  as  also  to  give  notice  if  an  enemy  were  gather- 
ing or  marching  toward  the  city  to  surprise  them. 
In  short,  it  was  a  watch-tower  by  day,  and  at  night 
they  lighted  some  combustible  matter  on  the  top 
thereof,  to  give  directions  to  the  weary  traveller 
repairing  to  the  city,  either  with  provision,  or  upon 
some  other  occasion." 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third  the  custody 
of  the  Barbican  was  committed  to  Robert  Ufford, 
Earl  of  Suffolk,  in  whose  family  it  appears  to  have 
been  made  hereditary,  in  the  female  line,  till  the 
reign  of  Queen  Mary.  In  this  reign  it  was  in 
the  keeping  of  Katherine,  Baroness  Willoughby 
d'Eresby,  in  her  own  right,  and  widow  of  Charles 


344  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Brandon,  Duke  of  Suffolk.  Adjoining  the  Barbi- 
can was  her  residence,  Willoughby  House,  of  great 
size  and  splendour.  Here  she  was  residing  with 
her  second  husband,  Richard  Bertie,  ancestor  of 
the  Barons  Willoughby  d'Eresby  and  Dukes  of 
Ancaster,  when  an  unlucky  act  of  imprudence 
drew  down  upon  her  the  vengeance  of  the  dreaded 
Bishop  Gardiner.  In  her  hatred  of  the  Romish 
faith,  she  was  induced  to  call  her  lapdog  by  the 
name  of  the  bishop,  and  to  dress  it  up  in  the  epis- 
copal rochet  and  surplice,  a  circumstance  which 
gave  such  offence  to  Gardiner  that,  in  order  to 
avoid  his  fury,  she  flew  with  her  husband  to  the 
Continent,  where  they  suffered  great  privations  till 
the  King  of  Poland  received  them  under  his  pro- 
tection, and  installed  them  in  the  earldom  of 
Crozan. 

Another  noble  family  who  resided  in  Barbican 
were  the  Egertons,  Earls  of  Bridgewater,  whose 
mansion,  Bridgewater  House,  was  once  famous  for 
the  productiveness  of  its  orchards.  It  was  burnt 
down  in  April,  1687,  during  the  occupancy  of 
John,  third  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  when  his  two 
infant  heirs,  Charles,  Viscount  Brackley,  and  his 
second  son,  Thomas,  perished  in  the  flames.  The 
site  of  the  mansion  and  gardens  is  now  covered  by 
Bridgewater  Square. 

The  learned  antiquary,  Sir  Henry  Spelman, 
author  of  the  "  Archaeological  Glossary,"  died  in. 
Barbican  in  1641. 


LONDON   AND   ITS    CELEBRITIES.  345 

On  the  south  side  of  Beech  Lane,  Barbican, 
stood  the  residence  of  Prince  Rupert,  a  portion  of 
which  was  standing  in  the  present  century.  In  the 
parish  books  of  St.  Giles's  Cripplegate  is  an  entry 
of  the  payment  of  a  guinea  to  the  church  ringers, 
for  complimenting  Charles  the  Second  with  a  peal 
on  the  occasion  of  his  visiting  his  kinsman  in  Bar- 
bican. Prince  Rupert  subsequently  removed  to  a 
house  in  Spring  Gardens,  where  he  died.  Accord- 
ing to  Stow,  Beech  Street  derives  its  name  from 
Nicholas  de  la  Beech,  lieutenant  of  the  Tower  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third. 

In  Golden,  or  Golding  Lane,  Barbican,  stood 
the  Fortune  Theatre,  one  of  the  earliest  places 
for  theatrical  entertainment  in  London.  It  was 
first  opened  in  1599  for  Philip  Henslowe  and 
Edward  Alleyn.  The  latter  was  also  proprietor  of 
the  Bear  Garden  in  Bankside,  Southwark,  and 
founder  of  Dulwich  College.  Alleyn's  theatre 
having  been  burnt  down  in  1621,  it  was  shortly 
afterward  replaced  by  another,  which  was  de- 
stroyed by  a  party  of  fanatical  soldiers  during  the 
Commonwealth.  In  the  register  of  burials  at  St. 
Giles's  Church,  Cripplegate,  may  be  traced  the 
names  of  several  of  the  actors  of  the  Fortune 
Theatre.  Playhouse  Yard,  which  connects  Golden 
Lane  with  Whitecross  Street,  still  points  out  the 
site  of  the  old  theatre. 

In  Golden  Lane  also  stood  the  Nursery,  a  semi- 
nary for  educating  children  for  the  profession  of 


346  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

the  stage,  established  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
Second,  under  the  auspices  of  Col.  William  Legge, 
groom  of  the  bedchamber  to  that  monarch,  and 
uncle  to  the  first  Lord  Dartmouth.  Dryden 
speaks  of  it  in  his  "  Mac  Flecknoe : " 

"  Near  these  a  Nursery  erects  its  head, 
Where  Queens  are  formed,  and  future  heroes  bred ; 
Where  unfledged  actors  learn  to  laugh  and  cry, 
Where  infant  punks  their  tender  voices  try, 
And  little  Maximins  the  gods  defy : 
Great  Fletcher  never  treads  in  buskins  here, 
Nor  greater  Jonson  dares  in  socks  appear." 

In  Pepys's  "  Diary  "  are  the  following  notices  of 
the  Nursery  : 

"2  Aug.,  1664.  To  the  King's  Playhouse,  and 
there  I  chanced  to  sit  by  Tom  Killigrew,  who  tells 
me  that  he  is  setting  up  a  Nursery  ;  that  is,  going 
to  build  a  house  in  Moorfields,  wherein  he  will 
have  common  plays  acted." 

"24  Feb.,  1667-68.  To  the  Nursery,  where 
none  of  us  ever  were  before ;  where  the  house  is 
better  and  the  music  better  than  we  looked  for, 
and  the  acting  not  much  worse,  because  I  expected 
as  bad  as  could  be  ;  and  I  was  not  much  mistaken, 
for  it  was  so.  Their  play  was  a  bad  one,  called 
'Jeronimo  is  mad  again,'  a  tragedy." 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

SMITHFIELD. 

Smithfield  Cattle-market  in  Former  Times  the  Place  for  Tour- 
naments, Trials  by  Battle,  Executions,  and  Autos-da-Ft  — 
Tournaments  before  Edward  the  Third  and  Richard  the  Sec- 
ond—  Trials  by  Duel  between  Catour  and  Davy,  and  the 
Bastard  of  Burgundy  and  Lord  Scales  —  Remarkable  Execu- 
tions —  Persons  Who  Suffered  Martyrdom  in  the  Flames  at 
Smithfield  —  Interview  There  between  Wat  Tyler  and  Rich- 
ard the  Second  —  Sir  William  Walworth. 

SMITHFIELD,  corrupted  from  Smoothfield,  con- 
tinued to  be  used  for  the  purposes  of  a  cattle-mar- 
ket for  nearly  seven  centuries.  Fitzstephen,  in 
his  account  of  London  written  before  the  twelfth 
century,  describes  it  as  a  plain  field,  where,  every 
Friday,  a  number  of  valuable  horses  were  exposed 
for  sale.  "  Thither,"  he  says,  "  come  to  look,  or 
buy,  a  great  number  of  earls,  barons,  knights,  and 
a  swarm  of  citizens.  It  is  a  pleasing  sight  to  be- 
hold the  ambling  nags  and  generous  colts  proudly 
prancing." 

Shakespeare  has  an  allusion  to  the  sale  of  horses 
in  Smithfield  : 

"  Falstaff.     Where's  Bardolph  ? 

Page.  He's  gone  in  to  Smithfield  to  buy  your  worship 
a  horse. 

347 


348  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Falstaff.  I  bought  him  in  Paul's,  and  he'll  buy  me  a 
horse  in  Smithfield :  an  I  could  but  get  me  a  wife  in  the 
stews,  I  were  manned,  horsed,  and  wived." 

—  King  Henry  IV.,  Part  II.,  Act  i.  Sc.  2. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Tower  and  of  the 
old  Palace  and  Abbey  of  Westminster,  there  is 
no  spot  in  London  the  history  of  which  is  so 
chequered,  or  which  has  witnessed  scenes  of  such 
deep  and  varied  interest  as  Smithfield.  Here,  in 
the  days  of  our  Norman  sovereigns,  the  citizens 
and  apprentices  contended  in  their  manly  exer- 
cises. Here  were  held  those  gorgeous  tourna- 
ments, when  the  vast  area  was  a  scene  of  glittering 
armour,  streaming  pennons,  and  balconies  covered 
with  cloth  of  gold.  Here  was  the  Tyburn  of  Lon- 
don, where  the  most  atrocious  criminals  expiated 
their  crimes  on  the  gibbet.  Here  perished  the 
patriot  Wallace,  and  the  gentle  Mortimer.  Here 
were  held  the  trials  by  duel  so  famous  in  history. 
Here,  at  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation,  took  place 
those  terrible  autos-da-ft,  at  which  our  forefathers 
earned  their  crowns  of  martyrdom  ;  and,  lastly, 
from  the  days  of  Henry  the  Second  to  our  own 
time,  here  were  annually  celebrated  the  orgies  and 
humours  of  Bartholomew  Fair,  immortalised  by 
the  wit  of  Ben  Jonson  and  by  the  pencil  of 
Hogarth. 

Many  remarkable  tournaments  are  recorded  as 
having  taken  place  at  Smithfield,  especially  during 
the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third.  Here  that  war- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  349 

Hke  monarch  frequently  entertained  with  feats  of 
arms  his  illustrious  captives,  the  Kings  of  France 
and  Scotland;  and  here,  in  1374,  toward  the  close 
of  his  long  reign,  the  doting  monarch  sought  to 
gratify  his  beautiful  mistress,  Alice  Pierce,  by  ren- 
dering her  the  "  observed  of  all  observers  "  at  one 
of  the  most  magnificent  tournaments  of  which  we 
have  any  record.  Gazing  with  rapture  on  her 
transcendant  beauty,  he  conferred  on  her  the  title 
of  "  Lady  of  the  Sun,"  and  taking  her  by  the  hand 
in  all  the  blaze  of  jewels  and  loveliness,  conducted 
her  from  the  royal  apartments  in  the  Tower  in  a 
triumphal  chariot,  in  which  he  took  his  place  by  her 
side.  Accompanying  them  was  a  procession  con- 
sisting of  the  rank  and  beauty  of  the  land,  each 
lady  being  mounted  on  a  beautiful  palfrey,  and 
having  her  bridle  held  by  a  knight  on  horseback. 

A  no  less  magnificent  tournament,  to  which 
invitations  had  been  sent  to  the  flower  of  chivalry 
at  all  the  courts  of  Europe,  was  held  at  Smithfield 
in  the  succeeding  reign  of  Richard  the  Second. 
The  opening  of  the  festivities,  which  lasted  several 
days,  is  graphically  painted  by  Froissart,  who  was 
not  improbably  a  witness  of  the  gorgeous  scene. 
"At  three  o'clock  on  the  Sunday  after  Michael- 
mas day  the  ceremony  began.  Sixty  horses  in 
rich  trappings,  each  mounted  by  an  esquire  of 
honour,  were  seen  advancing  in  a  stately  pace 
from  the  Tower  of  London.  Sixty  ladies  of  rank, 
dressed  in  the  richest  elegance  of  the  day,  followed 


35°  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

on  their  palfreys  one  after  another,  each  leading 
by  a  silver  chain  a  knight  completely  armed  for 
tilting.  Minstrels  and  trumpets  accompanied  them 
to  Smithfield  amidst  the  shouting  population. 
There  the  queen  and  her  fair  train  received  them. 
The  ladies  dismounted,  and  withdrew  to  their  al- 
lotted seats,  while  the  knights  mounted  their  steeds, 
laced  their  helmets,  and  prepared  for  the  encounter. 
They  tilted  at  each  other  till  dark.  They  all  then 
adjourned  to  a  sumptuous  banquet,  and  dancing 
consumed  the  night  till  fatigue  compelled  every 
one  to  seek  repose.  The  next  day  the  warlike 
sport  recommenced.  Many  were  unhorsed ;  many 
lost  their  helmets,  but  they  all  persevered  with 
eager  courage  and  emulation,  till  night  again  sum- 
moned them  to  their  supper,  dancing,  and  conclud- 
ing rest.  The  festivities  were  again  repeated  on 
the  third  day."  The  court  subsequently  removed 
to  Windsor,  where  King  Richard  renewed  his 
splendid  hospitalities,  and  at  their  conclusion  dis- 
missed his  foreign  guests  with  many  valuable 
presents. 

Appeals  to  arms  in  cases  of  disputed  guilt,  or,  as 
they  were  styled,  trials  by  battle,  were,  as  has 
been  already  mentioned,  anciently  accustomed  to 
take  place  at  Smithfield.  The  amusing  combat 
between  Horner  and  Peter,  in  the  second  part  of 
Henry  the  Sixth,  was  borrowed  by  Shakespeare  on 
a  real  fact  related  both  by  Grafton  and  Holinshed. 
A  master  armourer  of  the  name  of  William  Catour, 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  35  x 

having  been  accused  of  treason  by  his  apprentice, 
John  Davy,  and  the  former  strenuously  denying 
his  guilt,  a  day  was  appointed  for  them  to  decide 
the  point  at  issue  by  single  combat  at  Smithfield. 
The  armourer,  there  is  no  doubt,  was  an  innocent 
man.  Unfortunately,  however,  for  him,  on  the 
morning  of  the  duel  his  friends,  to  use  the  words 
of  Grafton,  plied  him  with  so  much  "  malmsey  and 
aquavite,"  that  he  fell  an  easy  prey  to  his  accuser. 
The  "false  servant,"  however,  did  not  long  evade 
the  hands  of  justice.  "Being  convicted  of  fel- 
ony," says  Holinshed,  "  in  a  court  of  assize,  he  was 
judged  to  be  hanged,  and  so  he  was  at  Tyburn." 
Among  the  Cottonian  MSS.,  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, are  preserved  the  original  warrants  author- 
ising the  combat,  from  which  it  appears  that, 
previous  to  the  encounter,  the  combatants  were 
instructed  in  the  use  of  arms  by  persons  nomi- 
nated and  paid  by  the  Crown.  The  last  single 
combat  which  need  be  mentioned,  as  having  taken 
place  at  Smithfield,  was  the  celebrated  one  fought 
in  1467  between  the  Bastard  of  Burgundy,  brother 
of  Charles,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  Anthony,  Lord 
Scales,  brother-in-law  to  King  Edward  the  Fourth. 
The  Bastard,  it  seems,  having  challenged  Lord 
Scales  "to  fight  with  him  both  on  horseback  and 
foot,"  King  Edward  not  only  gave  his  consent  to 
the  encounter,  but  expressed  his  intention  of  being 
present.  Accordingly,  on  the  appointed  day,  the 
ladies  of  the  court,  escorted  by  the  principal  nobil- 


352  LONDON   AND   ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

ity  of  the  realm,  took  their  places  in  the  magnifi- 
cent galleries  appropriated  for  them,  shortly  after 
which  the  rival  knights  made  their  appearance  in 
the  lists.  The  duel  was  continued  during  three 
successive  days.  On  the  first  day  they  fought  on 
foot  with  spears,  and  "  parting  with  equal  honour." 
The  next  day  they  encountered  each  other  on 
horseback.  "The  Lord  Scales's  horse,"  writes 
Stow,  "having  on  his  chafron  a  long  spear  pike 
of  steel,  as  the  two  champions  coped  together  the 
same  horse  thrust  his  pike  into  the  nostrils  of  the 
Bastard's  horse,  so  that  for  very  pain  he  mounted 
so  high  that  he  fell  on  the  one  side  with  his  master, 
and  the  Lord  Scales  rode  about  him  with  his  sword 
drawn,  till  the  king  commanded  the  marshal  to 
help  up  the  Bastard."  The  Bastard,  having  re- 
gained his  legs,  entreated  permission  to  renew  the 
combat,  but  the  king  peremptorily  refused  his  con- 
sent. The  final  encounter,  however,  was  merely 
deferred  till  the  following  morning,  when,  sur- 
rounded as  before  by  all  the  beauty  and  chivalry 
of  the  land,  the  rival  knights  again  made  their  ap- 
pearance in  the  lists,  armed  on  this  occasion  with 
pole-axes,  and  contending  on  foot.  The  fight  was 
continued  valiantly  on  both  sides,  till  Lord  Scales, 
having  succeeded  in  thrusting  the  point  of  his 
pole-axe  into  an  aperture  in  the  Bastard's  helmet, 
and  thus  nearly  forced  him  on  his  knees,  the  king, 
to  prevent  fatal  consequences,  threw  down  his 
warder  and  compelled  them  to  separate.  In  vain 


LONDON   AND    ITS   CELEBRITIES.  353 

the  Bastard  entreated  to  be  allowed  to  renew  the 
combat.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  two  referees  — 
the  constable  and  the  earl  marshal  —  that  in  such 
case  Lord  Scales,  by  the  law  of  arms,  was  entitled 
to  be  placed  in  the  same  advantageous  position 
which  he  had  obtained  when  the  king  threw  down 
his  warder,  and  accordingly,  under  these  circum- 
stances, the  Bastard  consented  to  withdraw  his 
demand,  and  King  Edward  declared  the  combat 
to  be  at  an  end. 

Many  remarkable  executions  have  taken  place 
in  ancient  times  at  the  Elms  in  Smithfield,  so 
called,  according  to  Stow,  "  that  there  grew  there 
many  elm-trees."  Among  these  we  may  mention 
the  horrible  end  of  one  John  Roose,  who  was  boiled 
to  death  in  a  caldron  in  1 5  30,  for  having  adminis- 
tered poison  to  seventeen  persons  belonging  to  the 
household  of  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  two  of  whom 
died.  Eleven  years  afterward,  a  young  woman,  of 
the  name  of  Mary  Davie,  suffered  the  same  terrible 
fate  for  a  similar  crime. 

At  Smithfield  many  holy  persons  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom in  the  flames.  Here  died  at  the  stake  the 
first  female  martyr  in  England,  Joan  Boughton,  a 
lady  of  some  consideration  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Seventh,  and  at  the  time  of  her  death  more 
than  eighty  years  of  age.  So  highly  was  she  es- 
teemed for  her  many  virtues,  that  after  her  mar- 
tyrdom her  ashes  were  carefully  collected  during 
the  night,  and  preserved  as  relics  for  pious  and 


354  LONDON  AND  ITS  CELEBRITIES. 

affectionate  remembrance.  She  left  behind  her 
a  daughter,  the  Lady  Young,  who  suffered  with 
equal  constancy  the  same  cruel  death  for  the  sake 
of  the  religion  which  she  conscientiously  believed 
to  be  the  truth. 

A  still  more  interesting  person  who  suffered 
martyrdom  at  Smithfield,  was  the  amiable  and 
high-minded  Anne  Askew.  To  such  frightful  tor- 
tures had  she  been  previously  subjected  on  the 
rack,  in  order  to  extort  from  her  a  recantation  of 
her  errors,  that  when  she  was  led  forth  from  the 
Tower  to  perish  in  the  flames,  opposite  St.  Barthol- 
omew's Church,  her  limbs  were  so  mangled  and 
disjointed  that  it  required  the  assistance  of  two 
sergeants  to  support  her.  She  remained  firm, 
however,  and  undaunted,  to  the  last.  Strype  in- 
forms us  that  one  who  visited  her  in  the  Tower  a 
few  hours  before  her  execution  was  so  struck  with 
the  sweet  serenity  of  her  countenance,  that  he 
compared  it  to  the  face  of  St.  Stephen,  "  as  it  had 
been  that  of  an  angel."  At  the  last  moment  — 
immediately  before  the  torch  was  applied  to  the 
fagots — a  paper  was  handed  to  her,  containing 
the  royal  pardon  on  condition  of  her  signing  a  re- 
cantation of  her  errors.  She  not  only,  however, 
refused  to  have  the  document  read  to  her,  but 
even  to  look  at  it ;  "  whereupon,"  writes  Ballard, 
"the  lord  mayor  commanded  it  to  be  put  in  the 
fire,  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  '  Fiat  justitia]  and 
fire  being  put  to  the  fagots,  she  surrendered  up 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  355 

her  pious  soul  to  God  in  the  midst  of  the  flames." 
This  painful  tragedy  took  place  in  the  presence  of 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the  Earl  of  Bedford,  the 
lord  chancellor,  and  others,  on  the  night  of  the  i6th 
of  July,  1546;  three  other  persons  —  a  priest,  a 
tailor,  and  one  of  the  Lascelles  family,  a  gentleman 
of  the  king's  household  —  suffering  at  the  same 
time  and  with  the  same  undaunted  courage.  Hav- 
ing nobly  and  obstinately  refused  to  purchase  life 
at  the  expense  of  their  consciences,  the  reeds  were 
set  on  fire,  and  in  a  moment  they  were  encom- 
passed by  the  flames.  "  It  was  in  the  month  of 
June,"  writes  Southey,  "and  at  that  moment  a  few 
drops  of  rain  fell,  and  a  thunderclap  was  heard, 
which  those  in  the  crowd,  who  sympathised  with 
the  martyrs,  felt  as  if  it  were  God's  own  voice  ac- 
cepting their  sacrifice,  and  receiving  their  spirits 
into  his  everlasting  rest." 

The  first  person  who  perished  in  the  flames  dur- 
ing the  succeeding  reign  of  Queen  Mary  was  the 
Rev.  John  Rogers,  a  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's. 
This  eminent  person  had  formerly  been  chaplaia 
to  the  English  merchants  at  Antwerp,  and  while 
residing  in  that  city  had  been  a  fellow  labourer 
with  Tindal  and  Coverdale  in  the  great  work  of 
translating  the  Bible.  Having  married  a  German 
lady,  by  whom  he  had  a  large  family,  he  was  en- 
abled, by  means  of  his  wife's  connections,  to  reside 
in  peace  and  safety  in  Germany.  Deeming  it  his 
duty,  however,  to  repair  to  England,  and  there 


35&  LONDON  AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

publicly  profess  and  advocate  his  religious  princi- 
ples, even  at  the  hazard  of  encountering  the  rack 
and  the  flames,  he  crossed  the  sea  and  took  his 
accustomed  place  in  the  pulpit  at  St.  Paul's  Cross. 
It  was  the  last  sermon  which  he  was  destined  to 
preach.  In  the  course  of  a  fearless  and  animated 
delivery  he  reminded  the  astonished  bystanders  of 
the  pure  and  wholesome  doctrine  which  had  been 
preached  to  them  from  that  pulpit  in  the  days 
of  Edward  the  Sixth,  at  the  same  time  solemnly 
warning  them  against  the  pestilent  idolatry  and 
superstition  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  His 
doom  was  of  course  fixed ;  and  accordingly,  after 
a  tedious  imprisonment,  frequent  examinations, 
and  repeated  attempts  to  convert  him  to  the 
ancient  faith,  he  was  brought  to  trial.  He  listened 
calmly  to  the  frightful  sentence  which  was  passed 
upon  him,  merely  requesting  that  his  poor  wife, 
being  a  stranger  in  a  foreign  land,  might  be 
allowed  to  remain  with  him  to  the  last,  or  at  all 
events  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  embrace  her 
before  he  died.  "  She  hath  ten  children,"  he  said, 
"that  are  hers  and  mine,  and  somewhat  I  would 
counsel  her  what  were  best  for  her  to  do." 
Bishops  Gardiner  and  Bonner,  however,  with  in- 
conceivable cruelty  refused  these  requests.  Never- 
theless, painful  as  were  the  circumstances  of  their 
last  interview,  the  husband  and  wife  were  destined 
once  more  to  meet.  As  the  martyr  passed  on  his 
way  to  Smithfield,  his  wife  met  him  with  her  ten 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  357 

children,  one  of  whom  was  at  the  breast.  They 
were  not,  indeed,  permitted  to  converse  with  each 
other ;  but  the  last  look  of  her  beloved  husband  — 
rendered  almost  sublime  by  its  expression  of  calm- 
ness and  resignation  —  gave  her  the  hope  of  meet- 
ing him  again  in  a  better  world,  where  bigotry  and 
persecution  would  cease  any  longer  to  have  power 
over  the  virtuous  and  the  brave.  In  regard  to  the 
martyr  himself,  neither  the  affecting  sight  of  his 
wife  and  children,  the  vast  multitude  of  people 
which  surrounded  him,  nor  the  terrible  parapher- 
nalia of  death,  had  the  least  effect  upon  him  in  his 
great  extremity.  Pardon  was  offered  him  at  the 
stake  if  he  would  consent  to  sign  his  recantation, 
but,  like  many  others,  who  had  suffered  for  the 
sake  of  the  truth,  he  not  only  rejected  the  boon 
which  was  offered  to  him,  but  died  with  a  constancy 
and  serenity  which  elicited  the  admiration  even  of 
his  persecutors. 

It  was  through  Smithfield  that  Bishop  Latimer 
was  led,  in  1553,  on  his  way  to  the  Tower.  Allud- 
ing to  the  fate  of  former  martyrs,  and  to  his  own 
approaching  and  terrible  death,  "Ah,"  he  said, 
"  Smithfield  has  long  groaned  for  me !  "  Scarcely 
could  Latimer  have  failed  to  remember  that  it 
was  at  this  very  spot,  a  few  years  previously, 
that  he  himself  had  preached  fortitude  to  Friar 
Forrest,  when  agonising  under  the  torture  of  a 
slow  fire  for  denying  the  supremacy  of  Henry  the 
Eighth. 


358  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

The  horrors  of  which  Smithfield  was  the  scene 
in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary  were  unhappily  repeated 
during  the  milder  rule  of  her  Protestant  successors. 
During  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  for  instance,  two 
Dutchmen  were  burned  to  death  at  Smithfield  for 
professing  the  principles  of  the  Anabaptists.  Here, 
too,  as  late  as  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  we  find 
one  Bartholomew  Legatt  perishing  at  the  stake  for 
rejecting  the  Athanasian  and  Nicene  Creeds.  He 
was  the  last  person  who  suffered  in  the  flames  in 
England  on  account  of  his  religious  principles. 

It  has  been  mentioned,  to  the  credit  of  our 
English  monarchs,  that  not  one  of  them  —  not 
even  Philip  the  Second  of  Spain,  when  he  became 
the  husband  of  Queen  Mary  —  was  ever  known 
to  attend  in  person  those  terrible  autos-da-ft  which 
anciently  took  place  in  Smithfield.  These  re- 
marks, however,  scarcely  apply  to  the  Princes 
of  Wales,  inasmuch  as,  in  1410,  we  find  unques- 
tionable evidence  that,  at  the  burning  of  one 
Badby,  a  Lollard,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterward 
Henry  the  Fifth,  was  a  voluntary  spectator.  "  He 
arrived,"  says  Rapin,  "  to  be  present  at  the  execu- 
tion; and  as  the  poor  wretch  gave  sensible  signs 
of  the  torture  he  endured,  he  ordered  the  fire  to 
be  removed,  and  promised  him  a  pension  for  life 
provided  he  would  recant ;  but  Badby,  recovering 
his  spirits,  refused  to  comply  with  the  offer,  and 
suffered  death  with  heroic  courage."  As  late  as  the 
year  1652,  Evelyn  mentions  his  seeing  a  woman 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  359 

who  had  murdered  her  husband  being  burned  to 
death  in  Smithfield.1 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  events  which  have 
taken  place  in  Smithfield  was  the  interview,  on  the 
1 5th  of  June,  1381,  between  Richard  the  Second, 
then  in  his  fifteenth  year,  and  the  rebel  leader, 
Wat  Tyler.  The  young  king  was  attended  only 
by  a  small  band  of  devoted  men,  while  the  other 
appeared  as  the  leader  of  thirty  thousand  lawless 
and  infuriated  followers.  The  metropolis  had  for 
many  days  been  at  the  mercy  of  the  rebels,  during 
which  neither  life  nor  property  were  safe.  The 
Temple,  the  Duke  of  Lancaster's  palace  in  the 
Savoy,  the  palace  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, the  Hospital  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  at 
Clerkenwell,  as  well  as  the  houses  of  the  judges 
and  of  the  more  powerful  and  obnoxious  citizens, 
had  recently  been  attacked  and  levelled  with  the 
ground.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  fearful  struggle  between 
poverty  and  wealth,  —  between  order  and  misrule. 


1  In  March,  1849,  during  excavations  necessary  for  a  new 
sewer,  and  at  a  depth  of  three  feet  below  the  surface,  immedi- 
ately opposite  the  entrance  to  the  church  of  St.  Bartholomew  the 
Great,  the  workmen  laid  open  a  mass  of  unhewn  stones,  black- 
ened as  if  by  fire,  and  covered  with  ashes,  and  human  bones 
charred  and  partially  consumed.  This  I  believe  to  have  been 
the  spot  generally  used  for  the  Smithfield  burnings,  the  face  of 
the  sufferer  being  turned  to  the  east,  and  to  the  great  gate  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  the  prior  of  which  was  generally  present  on  such 
occasions.  Many  bones  were  carried  away  as  relics.  The  spot 
should  be  marked  by  an  appropriate  monument. 


360  LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES. 

Consternation  was  depicted  on  every  countenance, 
and  terror  reigned  in  every  heart.  The  last  daring 
acts  of  the  rebels  had  been  to  force  the  gates  of 
the  Tower,  to  cut  off  the  heads  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  the  lord  chancellor,  and  the  lord 
treasurer,  and  even  to  pillage  the  royal  apartments. 
It  was  at  this  formidable  crisis  that  the  young 
king  consented  to  an  interview  with  the  rebel 
chief  at  Smithfield.  Tyler,  having  ordered  his 
companions  to  keep  in  the  background  till  he 
should  give  a  preconcerted  signal,  presented  him- 
self fearlessly  on  horseback  among  the  royal  ret- 
inue, and  entered  familiarly  into  conversation  with 
the  king  and  his  advisers.  Among  other  privi- 
leges which  he  demanded  for  the  lower  orders,  he 
insisted  that  all  the  warrens,  streams,  parks,  and 
woods  should  be  common  to  every  one,  and  that 
the  right  of  pursuing  game  should  be  equally  free. 
More  than  once  during  the  interview,  he  drew  his 
dagger  in  a  threatening  attitude,  insolently  throw- 
ing it  into  the  air,  and  then  catching  it  in  its  de- 
scent. At  length  he  went  so  far  as  to  seize  hold 
of  the  bridle  of  the  king's  horse,  when  Sir  William 
Walworth,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  unable  any 
longer  to  repress  his  indignation,  felled  the  rebel 
to  the  ground  with  his  sword,  on  which  he  was 
immediately  despatched  by  the  king's  attendants. 
At  that  moment,  but  for  the  extraordinary  pres- 
ence of  mind  which  Richard  displayed  on  the 
occasion,  the  king  and  his  attendants  must  in- 


LONDON   AND   ITS   CELEBRITIES.  361 

€vitably  have  perished  by  the  hands  of  the  infu- 
riated commons.  Advancing  alone  toward  the 
rebels,  "What  means  this  clamour,  my  liege 
men?"  he  said,  "what  are  ye  doing?  Will  ye 
kill  your  king  !  Be  not  angry  that  ye  have  lost 
your  leader.  I,  your  king,  will  be  your  captain. 
Follow  me  to  the  fields,  and  I  will  grant  you  all 
you  ask."  The  populace,  overawed  by  the  pres- 
ence of  majesty,  and  by  the  gallant  bearing  of 
the  young  king,  followed  him  implicitly  to  St. 
George's  Fields,  where  he  was  still  holding  a  par- 
ley with  them  when  a  body  of  men,  which  had 
been  collected  by  the  wealthier  and  more  influen- 
tial citizens,  and  who  were  joined  by  Sir  Robert 
Knolles  with  a  force  of  well-armed  veterans,  sud- 
denly made  their  appearance.  At  the  sight  of 
this  unexpected  force  a  panic  seized  on  the 
rebels,  who,  throwing  down  their  arms,  fled  in 
all  directions. 

Stow  has  pointed  out  the  exact  spot  in  Smith- 
field  on  which  Richard  stood.  "The  king,"  he 
writes,  "stood  toward  the  east,  near  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Priory,  and  the  commons  toward  the  west, 
in  front  of  battle." 


END    OF    VOLUME    I. 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444 


DA 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  I 


A     001  001  445     4 


